Mesothelioma is a terrible disease that affects the lining that covers the vast majority of our organs, the mesothelium. It is caused by the inhalation of asbestos dust, a compound that was used in the construction industry several years ago. Mesothelioma tends to manifest itself more than 30 years after an individual has been exposed to asbestos. This is the reason as to why we tend to see a lot of people getting diagnosed with this terrible disease now, in the 21st century. Many more will continue to be diagnosed . Asbestos was used up until the 1970's. Mesothelioma cancer has also been associated with intrapleural thorium dioxide, irradiation, as well as the inhalation of other fibrous silicates .

Since mesothelioma is technically a cancer, the same methods used to treat any other cancer are also used to treat mesothelioma. Depending on the patient's medical history and the stage of the mesothelioma , doctors can decide on the appropriate treatment for the patient. One can expect either one, or a combination of the following; chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery . However, since mesothelioma is a complicated cancer to treat , the prognosis after treatment isn't very good. A patient's prognosis is usually a few years at the most .

In order to attempt to increase one's chances of survival doctors these days tend to employ all three treatment methods . The term for this is trimodality therapy. This has proven to increase one's survival time by at least 5 years. Without this a mesothelioma patient can expect to live up to a year at most.

During trimodality therapy chemotherapy is the first treatment administered . The drugs used in chemotherapy are either given orally or intravenously. The main objective of this is to greatly slow down the growth of malignant mesothelioma. Surgery normally follows chemotherapy treatment , where any tumor mass is removed. We can break down the surgery into four distinct parts;

wide local excision
pleurectomy and decortication
extrapleural pneumonectomy
pleurodesis
postoperative radiation therapy

Last on the list is radiation where high-energy x-rays are used to kill off any remaining cancer cells.

Scientists are currently researching new treatment methods in hopes of obtaining better results. Included amongst the new methods are IMRT (intensity-modulated radiation therapy, gene therapy, (PDT) photodynamic therapy, and immunotherapy.