The challenge in diagnosing mesothelioma is the symptoms are very common to other, less severe illnesses. Primary symptoms of mesothelioma are the same as a common cold or flu, and include:

• Coughing
• Fever
• Nausea
• Loss of appetite

Unfortunately, the commonality of the symptoms means that mesothelioma is often diagnosed in its late stages, making treatment difficult. The key to a quick and early diagnosis is for your doctor to know that you were exposed to asbestos, the primary cause of mesothelioma.

Fortunately, even after receiving a diagnosis of mesothelioma, you have choices and can determine the best mesothelioma treatment options for your cancer type and stage. Initially, your doctor will run tests such as CT scans and MRI’s to learn more about your condition.

After learning the results of your tests, you and your doctor will need to make decisions regarding your treatment. Do you want to stay with the conventional therapies, such as surgery, chemotherapy drugs and radiation, or do you want to try a more experimental approach, such as gene therapy, or photodynamic therapy (combining certain drugs and light to kill cancer cells)?

If you qualify, there are clinical trials that give you access to treatment programs not available to the general public. Whatever direction you may wish to go, you should consult your medical team and your family to weigh all the options and determine the best course of mesothelioma treatment for you.

When treating mesothelioma, doctors often recommend more than one treatment, known as multimodality therapy. In the case of early stage malignant pleural mesothelioma, mesothelioma therapies include extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP), chemotherapy, and radiotherapy (RT).

A recent study was performed on 86 patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma to learn about the effects of RT, and if advanced mesothelioma treatment planning techniques, such as intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) would be beneficial. The study was performed from 1993 to 2008 on patients who underwent EPP followed by hemithoracic RT.

The results showed that no patients died of RT, but that several might have benefitted from receiving IMRT instead of the photon-electron technique they originally received. The study indicated that some patients may receive better coverage from receiving IMRT. The study, published in The Journal of Thoracic Oncology, concluded that the advantages of IMRT should be balanced against the increased risk of fatal pulmonary toxicity.

Consulting with your mesothelioma doctor is critical to determining the best treatment options. There are many medical terms to learn and research to perform to understand what treatment path is the best for you. To maintain all your research and documentation in one place, consider requesting our complimentary Mesothelioma Information Guide. It will help you stay organized and provide one place to document all your notes and medical information.