Clinical Trials, Mesothelioma, and Cancer

If you are interested in clinical trials you can ask your specialist for information or contact the Cancer Information Service of the National Cancer Institute. Many different clinical trials take place at various institutions throughout the country

A lot of people associate clinical trials with the term 'guinea pig' and fear that they are merely been used for experimentation purposes. However - understanding what is involved and educating yourself about a trial will alleviate any anxiety and enable you to make a rational decision as to whether you would like to take part.

Although the final decision is yours to make - Your family members and care providers may be able to support you through your options. I.e. help you to compile a list of questions to ask about the trial. Two of the most important questions to ask about the trial are what makes it different from standard treatments and are there any specific side-effects. You will also need to know how long the clinical trial will last and whether you will need to be hospitalised for the treatment.


You will also need to find out whether your medical insurance will cover the clinical trial, but the cost of drugs involved in most trials are usually covered by the trial itself. If you do decide to participate in a clinical trial you will receive more test and examinations than usual as your progress will need to be closely monitored. Also - if you decide that you want to withdraw from the study for any reason, you will find that that this is an allowable part of your contract

There are many experimental treatments for mesothelioma. One of the latest treatments is the drug Pemetrexed (Almita) which when used in conjunction with Cisplatin gave good test results in the laboratory as it was shown to shrink tumours at a much higher rate I.e. 15% - 25% more as opposed to other drugs.

Mesothelioma Traditional Treatment

Mesothelioma is rare kind of cancer and person dies within year or two after diagnosis. The explore of asbestos would during the work place and military services. It shows symptoms like chest pain,coughing, breathing difficulty which is mis leaded to some common problems and not detected at early stages.

Traditional treatment of mesothelioma

If the mesothelioma is diagnosed at the early stage then doctors prefer to go by the traditional way of treatment of mesothelioma rather than surgery. These include radiation and chemotherapy which are used to kill the cancerous cell responsible for the cancer without harming the patient. The side effect of this therapy is that it kills most of the healthy cells along with the cancerous cell and patient lose their hair, having the feeling of weakness and sickness, problem in eating. Doctored generally go with the chemotherapy to nullify these effects.


The chemotherapy is the treatment which works on the logic of killing the cancerous cells by giving chemical medication. This drug is given on the regular basics may weekly or monthly through blood stream or swallowing the drugs. The patients can stay at the home but may visit the doctor regularly.

Radiation treatment works on killing the cancerous cell with the help of high energy radiation like x-rays and stop them from growing. These are external beam radiation the patients are directed towards directly on the affected parts of the body. This treatment takes 30 days and has to done in same way for some weeks. In the internal radiation therapy doctors put the container of radiative mixture next to affected area either by using surgery or body cavity. Some of them were left in the body and rest are removed. Radiation treatments can be done with the help of radio pharmaceuticals drugs can be given through the ingestion or injected in the body. To find out more information please visit Mesothelioma Blog.