Mesothelioma Drug Therapy

Traditional Chemotherapy:

This traditional approach uses special anti-cancer (cytotoxic) medicines and chemicals to try to kill the malignant cells. Often, it is offered as an additional therapy alongside radical surgery and/or in combination with radiation therapy or immunotherapy, particularly when the cancer has spread beyond an operable area. Many drugs have been tried; however all have met with only limited success against malignant mesothelioma.

The chemotherapeutic agents can be administered either systemically (in the blood stream) or intrapleurally (in the pleural cavity itself.) These cytotoxic drugs are very potent and can have many severe side effects which you should discuss with your doctor.

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Mesothelioma Photodynamic Therapy

This treatment uses light to kill cancerous cells.

Initially, the patient receives a photosensitizer which collects in cancerous cells but not in healthy cells. (A photosensitizer is a drug which makes cells vulnerable (sensitive) to light of specific wavelengths.) After the cells have been sensitized, fiberoptic cables are placed in the body (usually through open-chest surgery) in order to focus light of just the right frequency on the tumor. This causes the photosensitizer to produce a toxic oxygen molecule which kills the cell.

Although this treatment is still in a very experimental stage for the treatment of mesothelioma, it has shown promising results in the treatment of other cancers.

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