Mesothelioma is a rare cancer, and as a result, there are still lots of discoveries being made and experiments being conducted with regard to it, in the hopes of understanding this disease better so that more people who are afflicted with it might be saved. Mesothelioma Research Scientists are finding out more about how asbestos exposure leads to mesothelioma, while doctors are trying to improve their diagnosis and treatment of it.

The cause and prevention of mesothelioma

The mesothelioma research that is being conducted is to try and achieve a better understanding of how asbestos affects the DNA of mesothelial cells, so that we might figure out how to prevent such changes. New mesothelioma research is also being conducted to test the role of a new virus which is thought to play a role in mesothelioma.

Researchers are spending time looking at different types of asbestos fibers, dust and particles, and trying to learn how much exposure is too much. This is important as asbestos and mesothelioma are public health concerns, with lots of people being employed in jobs where asbestos exposure is a hazard.

The treatment of mesothelioma

This is one of the most difficult cancers to treat, so naturally lots of money and research is going into the approaches taken to deal with mesothelioma. So far there are three ways of tackling mesothelioma – surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Doctors are now studying ways of combining all three of these methods, called multimodality therapy, to treat it. This may well be the best option for patients in the near future.

Advances are being made in radiation therapy as well. Mesothelioma tumors are hard to aim radiation at because the tumors are not well defined. But newer techniques of radiation are now being experimented with, and they allow computers to map out tumors more precisely so that the radiation can be delivered more accurately. This will reduce the side effects caused by radiation reaching healthy cells, and it will also mean that higher doses of radiation can be used.

The effects of chemotherapy drugs on mesothelioma only last a short time. As a result, researchers are trying to find ways of introducing drugs directly into the abdominal, lung or chest cavity so that they may be more effective. There are also drugs being developed that are meant to specifically target the changes that asbestos causes to the body’s cells, in hopes of preventing them.

Gene therapy for mesothelioma

Gene therapy is also being explored in hopes of finding better treatments for this disease in mesothelioma research.

Gene therapy involves replacing or repairing defective genes in the cancer cells. One of these methods is carried out using viruses, which are injected into the affected area so that they might infect the mesothelioma cells. Once they are infected, the virus injects the required gene into the cells, which will hopefully prevent or reverse the effects of mesothelioma.

Much of the mesothelioma research conducted is still in its early stages, and while progress is certainly being made but there is still a long way to go when it comes to battling this disease.