Multimodal therapy is a combination of treatments against cancer. For mesothelioma patients, multimodal therapy usually includes chemotherapy, radiation and surgery. The purpose of multimodal therapy mesothelioma is to improve the prognosis and quality of life of a patient.
if each patient is unique, each patient will receive a mesothelioma customized treatment plan. A surgery team, specialists and oncology will work together to determine the right combination of mesothelioma treatment for each patient.
When your doctors devise a treatment plan, the order of treatment is of great importance, and will vary with patient practices, doctors and treatment centers. That is why it is important to consult someone who is experienced in the treatment of mesothelioma.
For example, a patient may receive chemotherapy or neoadjuvant radiotherapy before surgery to shrink tumors, making them more accessible to remove during surgery. Other patients may receive adjuvant, or post-surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Still others could receive chemotherapy and intraoperative radiation therapy -. Treatments applied directly to the patient's cancer location while undergoing surgery
mesothelioma treatment options for Multimodal therapy
Trimodal therapy with surgery treatments, chemotherapy and radiation therapy is one of the most common forms of multimodal therapy for patients with pleural mesothelioma. In these cases, surgery is considered the primary therapy, or the most effective treatment option, supplemented by additional treatments.
The extent to which the cancer has spread is usually the biggest determinant of whether a patient qualifies for mesothelioma surgery. If pleural tumors have not spread beyond their point of origin, surgery may be effective to improve the prognosis of a patient. If pleural tumors have spread beyond their point of origin in neighboring organs, surgery may not offer significant advantages to the patient. In these cases of pleural mesothelioma, a multimodal approach using only chemotherapy and radiation therapy may be preferable.
However, in cases of peritoneal mesothelioma with spread to nearby organs, surgery can still offer significant advantages with the potential for chemotherapy and radiation.
In recent years, the use of experimental therapies in combination with traditional therapies have improved the speed and the quality of life of patient survival.
An experimental therapy, immunotherapy, uses drugs to boost the immune system of a patient to kill mesothelioma cells. This targeted approach will not damage healthy cells as chemotherapy does. Instead, it is designed to attack only the bad cells, or mesothelioma cells.
Additional experimental therapies available through clinical trials include gene therapy and photodynamic therapy. Gene therapy is where a defective gene or missing gene is replaced with a normal gene or genes are injected into the cancer cells mounted in the feeding cell and kill it. Photodynamic therapy uses special drugs that are activated by a certain type of light that activates cancer cells, making them easier to target and destroy
experimental therapies -. immunotherapy included - are currently available through clinical trials. Most immunotherapy drugs tested in mesothelioma patients have already won Federal Drug Administration (FDA) approval for the treatment of other cancers.
Want to learn more about mesothelioma treatment options? You can find a list of mesothelioma treatment centers on our Giving page to contact for answers to specific questions.
