Abdomen, Pelvis, and Perineun

Management and Treatment

As mesothelioma is often diagnosed at an advanced stage, treatment is usually focused on controlling the symptoms and prolonging life for as long as possible.

This is known as palliative or supportive care.

Possible treatments include:

chemotherapy – this is the main treatment for mesothelioma and involves using medicine to help shrink the cancer
radiotherapy – this involves using high-energy radiation to kill cancer cells; it may be used to slow the cancer down and keep it under control
surgery – an operation to remove the cancerous area can be done if mesothelioma is detected at a very early stage, although it's not clear whether surgery is helpful

You'll also probably have treatment for your individual symptoms to help you feel as comfortable as possible.

For example, regularly draining fluid from your chest may help your breathing and strong painkillers may help relieve your pain.

Sometimes a procedure is carried out to stop the fluid coming back again by making the outside of the lungs stick to the inside of your chest (pleurodesis), or a tube is put in your chest to drain the fluid regularly at home.

Your doctors should discuss these treatments with you.

Outlook for mesothelioma

Unfortunately, the outlook for mesothelioma tends to be poor. This is because it doesn't usually cause any obvious symptoms until late on and can progress quite quickly once it reaches this stage.

Overall:

around half (50%) of people with mesothelioma will live at least a year after diagnosis
around 1 in every 10 people (10%) with mesothelioma will live at least 5 years after diagnosis

There are currently around 2,500 deaths from mesothelioma each year in the UK. This number is expected to drop in the future because asbestos was banned in 1999.

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