Archive for the ‘Treatments’ Category

Chemotherapy Treatments

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010

Chemotherapy involves the use of anti-cancer drugs that act by preventing cell division of cancer cells. In most cases, drug combinations are used to increase the effectiveness. Chemotherapy may be used aggressively to shrink the tumor, or palliative, to relieve symptoms such as shortness of breath or pain. The chemotherapy can be administered by injection into a vein or muscle, by administration via the mouth or sometimes by direct administration into the pleural or peritoneal cavity. Some of the most commonly used drugs are:

  • Pemetrexed (Alimta)
  • Cisplatin (Platinol)
  • Carboplatin (Paraplatin)
  • Gemcitabine (Gemzar)
  • Doxorubicin (Adriamycin)
  • Mitomycin
  • Raltitrexed (Tomudex)
  • Vinorelbine (Navelbine)

Constantly new drugs are tested by pharmaceutical companies, so you can ask your doctor any time of the latest and most promising drugs. Such a drug, Alimta (pemetrexed), was approved in September 2005 in Europe.

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Treatment of Peritoneal Mesothelioma

Saturday, February 27th, 2010

Currently, therapeutic approaches vary in each institution. Common methods include palliative surgery, systemic chemotherapy, intra-abdominal chemotherapy and surgery cytoreducing with preoperative intraperitoneal chemotherapy.

The agents commonly used in chemotherapy regimens including various combinations of cisplatin, irinotecan, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, dacarbazine, gemcitabine and pemetrexed. Before 2003, most of the institutions relied on evidence from small phase II studies and patients treated with cisplatin and gemcitabine. This provided a median survival of 6-9 months. Since then, large trials have taken place and, more recently, has shown that the combination of cisplatin and pemetrexed leads to a median survival of 12-14 months. However, although encouraging, these results indicate that treatment of peritoneal mesothelioma with systemic chemotherapy still has a median survival of only 1 year. This is similar to what occurs in patients who are treated with a palliative approach. Therefore, their effectiveness as first line treatment is questionable. However, it is still a useful option for patients who are not appropriate surgical candidates.
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