Surgical Treatments For Mesothelioma
In Mesothelioma, the cancer cells are diffused throughout an entire area and that is the reason why the surgeons face difficulty in extracting the entire cancer tissue. This is also the reason behind the application of Chemotherapy and Radiotherapy after a surgery to get rid of the remaining cancer cells.
Two types of surgical methods are widely used to treat Mesothelioma. These are the Palliative Procedures and the Potentially Curative Procedures. Palliative Procedures attack the symptoms of the disease rather than the disease itself. This procedure consists of Chest Tube Drainage and Pleurodesis and the Pleuroperitoneal Shunt. Through a chemical Pleurodesis, an irritation is caused between the two layers, which cover the lung. Annihilation is caused because of this irritation to the spaces filled up with the fluid and this prevents further fluid from getting accumulated in between the layers. Agents like Talc and Bleomycin are used for this purpose. After the closure of the pleural space the fluid is drained out of the chest cavity through a chest tube. The other Palliative procedure, the Pleuroperitoneal Shunt is meant for those patients of Mesothelioma who have not gained relief from chemotherapy, radiotherapy or chest tube drainage and even for patients with a trapped lung.
The Potentially Curative Options target to eliminate the disease by removing the disease out of the body. It has a curative objective. The residual cancer cells are then removed using the Adjuvant therapy. This surgical procedure is of three types- Pleurectomy, Extra-Pleural Pneumonectomy (EPP) and Multi Modal Therapy. Pleurectomy is effective only in the early stages of Mesothelioma and this process involves removal of the Pleura and the chest cavity without taking out the entire lung. EPP is a radical therapy as it involves the removal of the entire lung with the tumor, pericardium, diaphragm and the pleura. Patients are assigned to specialized centers for undergoing this surgery. The multi modal therapies are nothing but the combination of the above therapies with other treatment options.