The conventional treatments for mesothelioma are chemotherapy, radiation therapy and surgery. In reality these are quite ineffective and unfortunately it is extremely difficult to be completely cured from mesothelioma. However research on various types of treatments is advancing. More and more is being learned about mesothelioma and specialist are gaining valuable experience. New therapies that are being studied include:

• Multimodality Therapy
• Anti-Angiogenic Therapy
• Immunotherapy
• Gene Therapy
• Photodynamic Therapy

Multimodality therapy involves studies about the combination of chemotherapy, radiation therapy and surgery that can best to be used to treat mesothelioma.

Angiogenesis is the process that involves the growth of new blood vessels from other pre-existing vessels. When one has mesothelioma we have a situation where the amount of new blood vessels produced by the individual is excessive. New blood vessels feed the disease and spread the cancerous cells throughout the body of the patient. Therefore it is important to halt the growth of new blood vessels. Drugs are being studied in order to try to interfere with this process.

Immunotherapy is a type of therapy that helps the immune system to fight cancerous cells. The immune system may not be able to recognize the difference between normal cells and cancerous cells or the response to cancerous cells is weak. Immunotherapy helps the immune system to recognize that cancerous cells are harmful and so encourages the natural body defenses to attack such harmful cells.

Different types of gene therapies are being studied for the treatment of mesothelioma. Gene therapy attempts to fight the disease at the DNA level. In some types of gene therapies cancerous cells are targeted in order to make them more prone to chemotherapy drugs.

Photodynamic therapy involves the destruction of cells through a special light. Certain drugs are administered, usually intravenously some days before the process. These drugs make cells sensitive to light of a certain wavelength. Then these drugs destroy cells as they are exposed to this light.



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Mesothelioma is a rare and severe type of cancer. The treatments available are not effective in treating the disease. This also arises partly from the fact that the disease is not well known. New methods and procedures need to be developed in order to improve the effectiveness of the treatment. Clinical trials are studies directed for the purpose to develop new treatments and to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of these new treatments.

There are basically four phases in a clinical trial and each phase has its goals. The phases are as follows:

Phase 1: This phase studies the safety and side effects of a new drug. It tries to determine the best way that this new drug is administered and tries to determine the appropriate dosage. It is important to state that not only new drugs are studied in a clinical trial but treatments such as surgery, radiation therapy and other treatments may also be studied. Before any treatment is tested on humans it has been already tested in the laboratory, usually on animals, but its side effects on humans will not accurately be determined until it is actually tested on them.

Phase 2: In this phase the treatment's effectiveness to fight mesothelioma will be studied and the treatment's safety will further be evaluated.

Phase 3: the new treatment is compared to existing treatments in order to study side effects and confirm its effectiveness.

Phase 4: Information is gathered in order to determine how an already approved treatment can be used to treat other diseases.

To be eligible for a clinical trial the patient should have certain characteristics. Eligibility depends on the stage of the disease, the age of the individual and many other factors. There are different types of clinical trials and eligibility is not the same for all. There is no guarantee that a clinical trial will produce the desired results. Further more the patient is obviously exposed to certain risks. Therefore it is very important that the patient talks with his physician and is well informed about the advantages and risks involved and the adequacy of clinical trial in his or her particular situation.

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