Mesothelioma Surgery
There are two types of surgeries for mesothelioma: Palliative surgery to ease pain and help extend the patient's life, and potentially
curative surgery aimed at aggressively treating the disease. Palliative surgery is the far less dangerous surgery of the two.
Curative surgery for mesothelioma has proven disappointing by itself, but in combination with chemotherapy or radiation, success has been
greater. The idea is to first remove as much of the tumor as possible with surgery then attempt to halt any further tumor growth.
The most common palliative surgical treatment is Chest Tube Drainage which removes the accumulation of fluid in the pleural space. This
treatment eases the pain and breathing difficulty associated with the fluid build-up.
There are 3 types of mesothelioma cancers:
Pleural mesothelioma (affecting the lining of the lungs), accounts for approximately 75% of all mesothelioma cases.
Peritoneal mesothelioma, (affecting the lining of the abdomen), accounts for 20% of cases and pericardial mesothelioma (affecting the
tissue surrounding the heart) accounts for the remaining 5% of all mesothelioma cases.
All three of these cancers occur in extremely vital areas of the body, adding to the difficulty of treatment.
Of the potentially curative surgeries, the most common is a pleurectomy/decortication in which the lining of the chest is removed.
This surgery leaves all organs intact and is normally used for patients at an early stage of the disease.
In each case, Mesothelioma surgery consists of operating on a patient to remove the bulk of cancerous cells from either the lining of the
lungs, abdomen or heart in an effort to defeat the cancer.
Due to the proximity of the cancer to major organs of the body, operations can
only be performed by extremely skilled surgeons.
Aggressive mesothelioma surgery is risky and only advised for the strongest of mesothelioma patients.