Mesothelioma Clinics Are Rare

Mesothelioma Clinics Are Rare
By Tony Ulrich

When diagnosed with mesothelioma cancer a person will most likely be faced with a roller coaster of emotions. Hearing this news can be an emotional drain; however, an individual must get past this heartbreaking news and start weighing their options for treatment.

Mesothelioma is still quite rare and finding a cancer clinic that specializes in treatment may be difficult for many people. There are some things that can help when researching a clinic for treatment.

You may be lucky enough to find a good clinic in your own city or at least nearby. However, many people may have to travel far greater distances to receive treatment. This may require prolonged stays away from their own home. If there are no insurance provisions to provide funds to help supplement the cost of this travel there are some other options.

There are groups located in some cities that will help with expenses related to medical travel. Contact the hospital or clinic where you will be seeking treatment to see if they can put you in touch with some of these groups. Also, if you belong to a church they may be able to help with fundraisers.

Mesothelioma clinics are frequently associated with the Association of Community Cancer Centers. Also, look for a clinic that the American Cancer Society has officially recognized. Any reputable mesothelioma clinic will be associated with these organizations.

In addition, make sure the clinic provides all necessary treatments in- house. Some clinics only specialize in one certain type of treatment and may require you to seek treatment elsewhere in the event that other treatments are necessary.

There may be times during your search for a clinic that you come across claims that may sound too good to be true. There are a number of mesothelioma clinics that claim that they can cure your cancer with alternative methods to traditional treatments. But the fact of the matter is, there is no known cure for mesothelioma.

Falling for these claims may ultimately shorten your lifespan and result in more pain and suffering. Some of these clinics may truly believe they are helping, but more than likely they are being staffed by well-meaning health care professionals who do not have any scientific training.

Because of the relatively small amount of people that suffer from mesothelioma there is not the same amount of money and time spent on a cure as it is for other forms of cancers.

One thing that a mesothelioma patient can do to help further the cause is participate in clinical trials. These are important steps in finding new treatments and possible cures for the future and some of them have shown first promising results.

The author Tony Ulrich was diagnosed with kidney cancer in October of 2009. In his research on what his cancer could have been caused by, he came across with data that suggests a strong link to environmental toxics, such as asbestos. Please visit his Kidney Cancer and Mesothelioma Clinic website for more details.

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Questions to Ask About Alternative and Complementary Therapies For Mesothelioma

Questions to Ask About Alternative and
Complementary Therapies For Mesothelioma
By Frederick Schenk

If you're facing a diagnosis of mesothelioma, you want all the help you can get. It's a tough disease to fight, and as with any cancer, you have to deal not only with the symptoms of the disease, but also with the side effects of chemotherapy and other treatments. People fighting mesothelioma often look to alternative or complementary treatments to help them through the fight.

Alternative treatments are non-standard treatments that patients may use instead of the recommended medical treatment. Complementary treatments are approaches used along with conventional treatment.

If you're looking at other treatments besides what your treatment team is offering, you'll want to be sure that you're bringing on board allies, not enemies. Here are five important questions to ask when you're looking at treatments other than the ones your mesothelioma treatment team has prescribed.

Will pursuing this alternative treatment delay or replace the mesothelioma therapy my doctors have prescribed? In all cancer treatment, and especially with mesothelioma, because it's so often not diagnosed until it is fairly advanced, time is of the essence. Any delay in treatment allows the cancer to progress. An alternative therapy may cost you precious time that you cannot get back.

Will the people who propose this alternative treatment work with my doctors? Responsible physicians with treatment methods that have stood up to research and scrutiny are eager to consult with other physicians about a patient's care. If the people advocating an alternative treatment won't consult with your regular doctors, you should be very concerned.

How safe is this treatment? Cancer treatment is strong medicine, and it has strong side effects. Nothing works for everybody. The people recommending an alternative therapy should be willing to discuss the treatment's side-effects and possible complications, and the statistical odds of your experiencing these downsides. If they can't give you solid numbers, and if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Do the drugs, herbs, hormones, or supplements used in this treatment interfere with my regular mesothelioma therapy? Some substances can actually counteract the effects of chemotherapy, and undo the good that it's doing.

Mesothelioma patients should be especially aware of the risks of high doses of folic acid, a widely used nutritional supplement. The only FDA approved chemotherapy agent for mesothelioma, Alimta, can have its effects cancelled out by excessive consumption of folic acid.

Have you talked over the alternative treatment with your mesothelioma treatment team? Good doctors want to help you make use of any treatment that will help you with your illness and the side-effects of treatment. They need to know all of the medications and supplements you're taking, and the dosages, to be sure that the treatment effects are not being interfered with.

There are powerful and effective allies for your mesothelioma treatment, complementary approaches that can help you tolerate the rigors of chemotherapy and improve your quality of life. Physicians who treat mesothelioma place a high value on the use of complementary therapies and approaches to improve their patients' well-being.

Two of your best allies are simple, cheap, and available to just about everyone. Regular moderate exercise has been shown in several large-scale studies to improve cancer survival rates.

No diet can cure cancer (beware of any diet that promises to do that!), but a diet low in fat and high in plant-based foods, also called the Mediterranean diet, has been shown to increase survival rates for cancer and cardiovascular disease. Exercise and a plant-based diet generally make people feel better, as well.

Massage therapy has shown impressive results in reducing pain, fatigue, nausea, stress, and depression for patients undergoing cancer treatment. Patients were asked to rate themselves on these conditions before a full-body massage, and again after the massage.

Self-ratings dropped sharply immediately after massage, and the lowered ratings persisted for over 48 hours. No medications, no invasive treatments; just a massage.

Meditation and yoga both reduced levels of pain, fatigue, insomnia, and depression. Both of these techniques showed a clear dose-response relationship: the more patients practiced them, the more symptom reduction they experienced.

If you're interested in using any of these approaches to help you live with your mesothelioma, be sure to talk with your treatment team about them.

Frederick Schenk, a California asbestos attorney for more than 25 years, understands the havoc a mesothelioma diagnosis can cause. He has spent his career pursuing justice for asbestos victims through mesothelioma lawsuits.

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Mesothelioma - The Chemotherapy Drugs You Might Be Given

Mesothelioma - The Chemotherapy Drugs You Might Be Given
By Thomas Ajava

A diagnosis of Mesothelioma has often been viewed as a death sentence. While it is still a brutal diagnosis, treatment options have come a long way. This is particularly true when it comes to chemotherapy. There are two specific drugs that are making a big difference - Alimta and Cisplatin.

Mesothelioma is a cancer of the lining known as the mesothelium. It is associated with asbestos exposure. There are three forms of the cancer - pleural, pericardial and peritoneal. All three are deadly and the average five year survival rates is less than 10 percent. The problem is the cancer is often very hard to diagnose and is thus often discovered only in the very latest of stages. That is very problematic with just about any form of cancer.

There are many different ways of trying to treat Mesothelioma. The three most common are surgical extraction, radiation therapy and chemotherapy. Unlike most medical situations, many doctors will go very aggressive with the treatment in an effort to stop the spread of the disease. Chemotherapy plays a huge role in this and Altimta and Cisplatin are two newer drugs being used.

Alimta has been hailed as a major breakthrough in the chemotherapeutic treatment of patients. It has shown massive effects on Mesothelioma suffers. In one test at Newcastle Freeman Hospital, nearly every patient had improvements on symptoms caused by the cancer.

More importantly, nearly half saw their tumors shrink instead of grow. The drug is given over a 21 day period and usually in combination with Cisplatin.

Cisplatin is an older chemotherapy drug that is used as a base treatment for many types of cancer. It is somewhat akin to taking penicillin as an antibiotic. It is given over a 21 day period and is considered an effective treatment of tumors and general cancer growth.

Unfortunately, it has many side effects that are the type of thing often stereotypically associated with chemotherapy. This includes hair loss, extreme fatigue, weight loss, and potentially kidney damage if not handled carefully.

Will these drugs save you? Well, every case is different and you should speak with your physician. That being said, they are considered two standard approaches to the chemotherapy treatment for Mesothelioma, which means you will probably be introduced to them at one point or another.

Thomas Ajava writes for MesotheliomaandAsbestosInformation.com - your online source for answers to questions such as is there a food that can help cure Mesothelioma.

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New Mesothelioma Treatment

New Mesothelioma Treatment
By Marcus Peterson

Several new mesothelioma treatments are being developed. Researches mostly revolve around developing new treatments or improving upon the traditional treatments. Hopes are high for mesothelioma patients as new chemotherapy agents and combinations of agents are giving improved results.

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a new mesothelioma treatment based on the theory that single celled organisms die when exposed to certain frequency of light. For this certain photosensitive drugs are administered intravenously. In a couple of days, the drug concentrates on the diseased cell and destroys it. Skin sensitivity, nausea and vomiting are some of the side effects.

Immunotherapy, sometimes called biological therapy, is another new method in mesothelioma treatment. In this method, the immune system of body is used to treat the disease. The body's ability to treat itself might be hampered due to certain reasons. Immunotherapy tries to rejuvenate the immune system and there by improving the natural immune system which is the most effective way to combat any disease.

The therapy also tries to repair immune systems that are faulty. Biological response modifiers (BRMs) are the substances used in immunotherapy. BRMs naturally occur in the body but it can now be prepared in laboratory and is found to give the same effect as the natural ones.

Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) is new treatment used to improve local control of mesothelioma. In this radiation doses can be administered to tumor without causing damage to nearby normal cells. Treatment at the DNA level is an important breakthrough in science. Gene Therapy tries to correct or replace abnormal genes. Replacement gene therapy and knockout gene therapy are two main types of gene therapy.

In replacement gene therapy the mutated or missing gene which causes mesothelioma is replaced. In knockout gene therapy, the gene responsible for tumor is completely eliminated. With more and more information regarding genes being unfolded, gene therapy treatment has a promising future in the treatment of mesothelioma.

Treatments which use some combinations of surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy, called multimodality therapy, are being researched upon. Heated intraoperative intraperitoneal chemotherapy and use of pemetrexed drug, brand named Alimta, are some of the new developments in the treatment of mesothelioma.

Mesothelioma Treatment provides detailed information on Mesothelioma Treatment, Mesothelioma Treatment Options, Alternative Mesothelioma Treatment, New Mesothelioma Treatment and more. Mesothelioma Treatment is affiliated with Mesothelioma Doctors Info.

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Mesothelioma Treatment Overview

Mesothelioma Treatment Overview
By Andre Savoie

If you or someone you love has been diagnosed with asbestos related cancer, or mesothelioma, finding the best treatment becomes a top priority. However, understanding a complex medical condition can be difficult, especially with a rare disease such as mesothelioma. Making matters worse is the relatively low survival rate of patients diagnosed with the disease.

While your cancer treatment decisions should be made under the guidance of a physician familiar with the specific details of your condition, the following can serve as an overview to familiarize yourself with some of the options available.

You have choices in mesothelioma treatment

There are many options for treating mesothelioma, and as research progresses, new treatments are being developed all the time. Here are three of the most commonly used asbestos cancer treatment options and some of the pros and cons of each.

Surgery

Surgery is often the first choice for people with asbestos cancer in its earliest stages as removing the source of the cancer may help with other treatment options. However since asbestos related disease often manifests itself in the lining of the lung cavity, the surgical option can involve the removal of an entire lung or just a portion of the lung.

This is a very invasive procedure and can have many types of inherent risks and as such, can be difficult for patients in poor health and is usually reserved for those whose health is stronger.

Radiation Therapy

Radiation therapy was not a popular treatment for mesothelioma because it traditionally could only target specific areas, and asbestos cancer usually does not manifest itself in that way. However, recent advancements have made radiation therapy a more viable option for mesothelioma patients as lasers can be aimed more accurately.

Using a concentrated beam to target cancerous cells, radiation tries to destroy those cells so that the cancer will not spread. Radiation therapy can be used in conjunction with other therapies including surgery.

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is another option for asbestos cancer patients, and can be used at all stages of the cancer although it is not curative. Chemotherapy can be used to shrink tumors in preparation for surgery, or after surgery, to attack those diseased cells that were not removed during the procedure.

Recent trials are investigating a different method of delivering the drugs directly to the lungs to improve the effectiveness of this treatment.

While these are three of the most common therapies offered for patients with mesothelioma, they are not a comprehensive list of the available options.

New types of treatment including photodynamic therapies, targeted drugs with fewer side effects, and blood testing, are being refined and brought to market. Consult with your mesothelioma specialist to determine the optimal treatment for yourself or your loved ones.

The Louisiana asbestos attorneys at Landry & Swarr can help you learn more about current mesothelioma treatments as well as provide legal advice and guidance during this difficult time. Landry and Swarr specialize in mesothelioma litigation and have years of experience in this particular area of the law.

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Mesothelioma Treatment Options Explained

Mesothelioma Treatment Options Explained
By Terro White

Treatment of any cancer is tedious but mesothelioma is a cancer that needs urgent and extensive treatment regime. This is must in order to improve quality of life of patient if he is in terminal stages of cancer.

If he is in the early stages, certainly apt treatment can save the life of the patient or at least his life can be extended. No doubt early diagnosis of mesothelioma cancer can help doctors to sketch out a good treatment plan for the patient.

But the sad part is that the cancer is usually diagnosed in late stages due to its symptoms mimicking those of severe pneumonia. Unless a lung tissue biopsy is done, diagnosis of mesothelioma cannot be ascertained.

But medical researchers have paved way for some amazing treatment options for the cancer these days. Though all the treatments have not yet been verified, many of them called as clinical trials are proving extremely helpful for the patients to come out of the difficulties.

Let's see what prime treatment options are there for mesothelioma patient:

o Surgery: If the cancer is in its early stages, surgery is the best option. If the malignant mesothelioma lies in one of the parts of chest, surgeons remove that part of the chest lining with cancer along with some tissue surrounding it. But if cancer is present in more than one place, pleurectomy or decortication need to be done. Extrapleural pneumonectomy is the procedure to remove the diseased lung, portion of pericardium, part of the diaphragm, and part of parietal pleura. Debulking is the procedure to remove as much as cancer possible in little advanced stages.

o Chemotherapy: This conventional mode of therapy is used to kill cancer cells. Pemetrexed is the chemotherapy drug first used and approved for mesothelioma treatment. New drugs like Raltitrexed and Ranpirnase are also used.

Some others like Cisplatin and Carboplatin are also used with inconsistent results. Side effects of chemotherapy however have to be understood before so that patient's compliance can be improved with positive mental outlook.

o Radiation: High intensity radiation is given to the localized tumor mass. Size of the tumor and symptoms like breathlessness can be reduced with radiation and also the side effects are relatively fewer.

o Clinical Trials: Many different clinical trials are instituted by experienced doctors though the cure is not guaranteed. With consent from patients, such treatments are executed. It is a sort of trial and error method, however, with latest clinical trials, huge decrease in symptoms of mesothelioma patients is observed. Such treatments pave way for better mesothelioma treatments in future.

o Photodynamic therapy: Use of LASER beam to kill cancer cells is indicated in this therapy. This therapy still is in research stage and usually combined with pleurectomy or extrapleural pneumonectomy.

o Immunotherapy: It is intended to build immunity to fight cancer cells. Use of different therapies like gene therapy, monoclonal antibodies therapy, and cytokine proteins like interleukins and interferon therapy comes under this mode.

o Nutrition and psychotherapy: This is certainly needed to improve quality of life in mesothelioma patients and also to improve compliance to treatments chosen.

o Alternative therapies like homeopathy are also tried and used successfully as an adjunct to main treatment.

In short, the treatment of mesothelioma can be done successfully if diagnosed at early stages and if full patient's cooperation is received.

Learn more about mesothelioma and its consequences on the patient and his family at mesotheliomahelp.net. You can also seek explanation for any of your queries regarding mesothelioma cancer here.

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The Most Common Mesothelioma Treatment Options

The Most Common Mesothelioma Treatment Options
By Annabelle Wooldridge

Mesothelioma treatment options are improving with research and the program of treatment depends on factors such as where the cancer is situated, the stage of the cancer, how far it has spread, the patients age and needs and how the cancer cells appear under a microscope.

There are three main types of traditional treatment for people with mesothelioma lung cancer, namely, surgery to remove the cancer, chemotherapy which is the use of drugs to eradicate cancer cells and radiation therapy which uses x-rays in high dose or other energy rays to destroy cancer cells. Usually, these therapies are combined.

The mesothelioma cancer prognosis is usually only eight to twelve months. However, time is of the essence when treating this disease and the earlier it is diagnosed, the better.

In the case of surgery, sometimes diagnostic surgery is needed as a very necessary step, as mesothelioma diagnosis through fluid is sometimes inconclusive. Sometimes a thoracoscopy (like an open biopsy but less invasive) is done to carry out multiple tissue biopsies and for assessment of the pleural cavity. A conclusive diagnosis is obtained in up to 98% of cases. Fluid can be drained from the intrapleural space at the same time and the extent of the tumor assessed to determine the possibilities of resection.

An alternative to thoracoscopy is video assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) which is more invasive but the physician is able to see the pleural space using a camera while collecting tumor samples for examination by a pathologist. The physician can also determine the extent of tumor invasion for example in the chest wall or pleural involvement.

A laproscopy or mediastinoscopy are also sometimes used as other ways of gaging the extent of disease.

Palliative procedures are used to treat symptoms of mesothelioma but do not treat the disease itself. Such procedures include chest tube drainage and pleurodesis which are the most common palliative treatments. Thoracoscopy and pleurodesis are done with VATS. A pleuroperitoneal shunt is sometimes used, but in limited capacity due to tumor seeding concerns. Lastly a pleurectomy is sometimes carried out in cases where more extensive surgery is not possible.

Along with diagnostic and palliative treatments, surgery with potentially curative intent is carried out where the aim is to remove all of the disease with the awareness that some microscopic elements will probably remain.

For malignant pleural mesothelioma two surgical treatments are available namely, a pleurectomy/decortication which is carried out on early stage tumors (Stage I and sometimes Stage II) and secondly, an extrapleural pneumonectomy which is only executed by surgeons with much expertise and where previous surgery has failed to cure or prolong life.

For peritoneal mesothelioma, cytoreductive surgery aims at removing all of the visible or gross tumor within the peritoneal cavity. Cancer cells left are treated with chemotherapy and focused in the abdominal cavity.

Chemotherapy is the treatment of cancer with anticancer chemical substances to control the division of cancerous cells by destroying them. It is not considered curative but seeks to control the spread, shrink tumors, to relieve symptoms like pain and to destroy microscopic cells remaining post surgery (adjuvant chemotherapy).

Radiation therapy or radiotherapy is included in the range of mesothelioma treatment options and treats the tumor with the use of penetrative beams of high energy radiation and can be used in conjunction with surgery and palliatively.

For more information about Mesothelioma Treatment Options and other forms of cancer visit Annabelle Wooldridge's website at http://answers-for-cancer.com

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