Chemotherapy as a treatment option for Mesothelioma

Chemotherapy involves the usage of cytotoxic (i.e. anti-cancer) drugs to kill cancerous tissues. Chemotherapy works by destroying the growth mechanism of the cancerous cells.

In some individuals, chemotherapeutic treatment can arrest the progress of mesothelioma for some time; decreasing the symptoms associated with it and improving the quality of life. It can increase the lifespan in some patients with mesothelioma bya few months, but will not generally completely cure it. Chemotherapy usually provides relief from the symptoms. Chemotherapy is usually administered after surgical operations are performed to treat mesothelioma.

Chemotherapy is the best treatment option for mesothelioma that is known to increase the chances of survival in patients suffering from the disease. A research study conducted in the year 2003 by Vogelzang and other scientists compared cisplatin chemotherapy with a combination of cisplatin with pemetrexed chemotherapy in individuals who had not undergone chemotherapy for mesothelioma before and were not candidates for surgery. This trial reported increasef survival chances from chemotherapy in mesothelioma. Vitamin supplements were given to most participants in the trial and side effects related to pemetrexed were comparitively low in individuals receiving pemetrexed when they were also administered 500 mg of folate daily and 1000mg of vitamin B12 every 9 weeks when compared with individuals receiving pemetrexed without any vitamin supplements. In February of 2004, the United States Food and Drug Administration (i.e. the FDA) approved the drug pemetrexed as a treatment drug for malignant pleural mesothelioma. Nevertheless, there are many unanswered questions regarding the correct usage of chemotherapy, when to start the treatment, and the correct number of treatment cycles to be administered.

Cisplatin when administered in combination with raltitrexed increases survival rates similar to that of pemetrexed in combination with cisplatin. However, raltitrexed is no longer available commerically in the market. In individuals who cannottolerate pemetrexed, cisplatin along with gemcitabine or vinorelbine is an alternative option, though significant increases in survival have not been observed for these medications. For individuals in whom it is not possible to use cisplatin, carboplatin may be substituted but some studies have shown comparitively low response rates and high rates of toxicity for carboplatin-based medications, albeit with almost the same survival rates like patients who arebeing administered cisplatin.

Recently in January 2009, the United States FDA okayed the use of conventional therapies like surgical procedures in combination with radiation therapy and chemotherapy on Mesothelioma after studies performed on national level by Duke University came to the conclusion that remission rates increase by almost 50 points.