Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is a form of cancer treatment that is used in many different varieties of cancer. Certainly, while nearly every patient's individual circumstances and treatment roadmaps will be different, chemotherapy remains the most widely used treatment methodology in cancer care. The chances are, if a cancer diagnosis of any type falls upon a patient, it is more than likely chemotherapy will be recommended in some capacity. Mesothelioma is no exception to this widespread use. In fact, chemotherapy is likely going to be one of the best options for mesothelioma patients.
Chemotherapy's primitive use and discovery dates back to the turn of the century and WWI. Certain field doctors took note that patients exposed to mustard gas had cell damage throughout their body. A hundred years later, physicians and cancer specialists have refined methods in which certain drugs, when introduced to the body can actually kill cancer cells. These drugs are called cyto-toxins, meaning cell-killing drugs. Remarkable advances have been made so that these drugs can actually seek out and kill primarily cancer cells and leave healthy cells unaffected. In some varieties of cancer, chemotherapy can actually cure the patient without invasive surgery or series of radiation treatments.
Because mesothelioma has no cure, chemotherapy will not cure mesothelioma. However, chemotherapy is the single most effective and widespread way to combat mesothelioma to extend prognoses and eliminate discomfort. Chemotherapy is particularly effective for those mesothelioma patients whose cancer has metastasized, or spread to other areas of the body outside the pleura or other origin. It is effective in this regard because it acts as a systemic treatment, meaning it enters the bloodstream and acts throughout the body, acting upon cancer when it is encountered.
Unfortunately, the stigma that surrounds chemotherapy and its side effects is largely truthful. While chemotherapeutic drugs will generally act upon only cancer cells, inevitably some healthy cells will be affected, leading to the side effects associated with chemotherapy. The side effects can be mild or somewhat difficult but commonly included fatigue, nausea, fever, and others depending on the overall health of the patient. In any case, the physician and other cancer specialists will decide if chemotherapy is the best option for the patient and their particular circumstances.
