There is a lot going on in mesothelioma chemotherapy research; the various types of chemotherapy have evolved as physicians have learned about the types of malignant cells that are present with mesothelioma. There are multiple variants of cancer cells, all of which have different strengths and weaknesses. There are two types of cells associated with mesothelioma; epithelioid and sarcomatoid: they react to different types of treatments. With increasing frequency, mesothelioma diagnoses are showing cases with both types of cells – a condition called biphasic mesothelioma.
There have been and continue to be clinical trials that combine chemotherapy drugs to find more effective treatments for mesothelioma cancer cells. There are also a few new drugs in the test phase that are specifically designed for mesothelioma cancer cells; the first of these is Alimta, or pemetrexed. The reports on these trials usually consider them a success if the tested treatment modality extends the life of the patient by a period of a few months. That fact illustrates the limits to mesothelioma treatment that chemotherapy alone can provide.
There have been some successes treating peritoneal mesothelioma using surgical removal of as much malignant tissue as possible and combining it with intraperitoneal hyperthemic chemotherapy. This type of post-surgical treatment involves heating and delivering the chemotherapy drugs directly to the diseased area with some form of shunt. Utilization of this technique resulted in a median survival period of nearly three years in one study and over four years in another.
Source : google.com
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