Treating Mesothelioma - Stage I
Treatment of Stage I mesothelioma will typically offer the patient the longest projection of survival because the cancer has been discovered early enough to proceed with "best-case scenario" treatment programs. These include different surgical procedures which will target the cancer in different areas. Mesothelioma is a complicated cancer, so it is not possible to say that all Stage I patients are ideal for one form of treatment, but what we do know is that these patients have the best prognosis for the disease.
There are different types of surgeries for malignant mesothelioma with regards to what area of the body they target. A pleurectomy is a procedure which targets the pleura, the portion the body most commonly affected by mesothelioma. The pleura is a thin layer of tissue surrounding the lung. In a pleurectomy, the pleura is removed in addition to the surrounding tissue. If the diagnosis is malignant pleural mesothelioma, this will eliminate the source of the cancer and prolong prognoses greatly. This will likely necessitate a hospital stay of about a week and a recovery period of about a month.
A more complicated and intensive procedure is an extrapleural pneumonectomy, which is essentially a dramatic restructuring of the chest cavity. In this procedure the diaphragm, pleura, pericardium (tissue surrounding heart), and affected lung (lung closest to affected pleura) will be removed. This procedure is only available to those in good health but can help extend survival beyond any other form of treatment. Following the resection of the diaphragm and pericardium they will be reconstructed from prosthetic material and sutured to surrounding tissue. The idea of this therapy is not only to remove the affected area but to also remove areas in which the cancer may spread in the future, with the diaphragm and pericardium being common sites of metastasized mesothelioma. This surgery is intensive, requiring a hospital stay of at least two weeks and a recovery period of about two months.
Radiation may also be used in this period, either on its own or as a complement to surgery. If patients are ineligible for surgery, which is possible even in early stage mesothelioma due to health circumstances, radiation has shown to be extremely effective in controlling localized tumors. Radiation may also be used to shrink a tumor, making surgical resection a later possibility.
