The treatment of cancer depends on its location, the stage as well as the age and the overall health of the patient. The same factors apply when the best treatment options for mesothelioma need to be evaluated. Usually, a team of oncologist will make this decision and put together a treatment regime. Mesothelioma is difficult to treat and the outlook on long term survival is poor.

Let's have a look at the ten most popular state of the art treatment options for mesothelioma

1) Surgical Removal of the tumor tissue. This option is possible if the cancer is detected in an early stage. The utilized procedure is usually a thorascopy, video assisted thoracic (VATS), laparoscopy or mediastinoscopy. Alternatively, the health care professionals may suggest palliative procedures. That may include pleurodesis, chest tube drainage, pleuroperitonial shunt or a pleurectomy. However, all of the aforementioned surgical measures do not treat the actual mesothelioma cancer, but much rather the symptoms only.

2) Radiation. Mesothelioma usually affects the lungs. Therefore, effective and safe radiation is difficult to administer. Currently, there is research being done on using implants and UV therapy with the goal to make the process less impactful on the surrounding tissue that is not affected by the cancer.

3) Chemotherapy. This treatment option is responded by 12-20% of the mesothelioma patients. Chemotherapy agents are drugs that destroy cells. However, most chemotherapies bear significant side effects and in the case of mesothelioma, none of the currently available chemo protocols can provide a cure. The objective is to slow down or prevent further progression of the disease. Chemo for mesothelioma can also be used to shrink the size of the tumor mass prior to surgery or target the remainders of malignant tissue after the surgical procedure. The most commonly administered chemotherapy for mesothelioma is Pemetrexed in conjunction with Cisplastin, as both drugs have been showing the most promising results.

4) Interlukin2 as biological therapy.

5) Immunotherapy. This treatment option is designed to strengthen the body's own immune system through biological response modifiers, called BRMs. Through these modifiers the growth and division of the cancer cells can be regulated, if the patient responds positively to this treatment.

6) Gene therapy. This is a rather unconventional option via attempting to alter the gene sequence that led to the cancer.

7) Lovastatin is a drug that lowers the cholesterol levels and some studies have shown a moderately positive effect in treating mesothelioma.

8) Photodynamic treatment is a rarely administered option through which a medication is activated by a laser. This procedure is typically performed during the surgical removal of a tumor.

9) Draining of fluids. When fluids accumulate in the chest cavity, patients experience severe discomfort.

10) Trimodal therapy. This is a combination therapy where chemotherapy and radiation is used after surgery.

Further to that, complementary mesothelioma treatment options have shown some remarkable results in the treatment of mesothelioma. These treatments may include intravenously administered Vitamin C drips and natural supplements. I use these alternative options in order to treat my kidney cancer.

Lastly, there are a number of ongoing clinical trials and mesothelioma patients may qualify to participate if they wish to do so.