Mesothelioma is an uncommon entity. The usual age of diagnosis is at age 60. Radiation therapy has been utilized in the setting of mesothelioma with equivocal results. The median survival is nearly the same as surgery alone. Survival in these treated patients is not significantly different than those treated with supportive care alone, but the quality of life can be affected.
Radiation can effectively palliate pain, shortness of breath and other symptoms.
Mesotheliomas are moderately responsive to radiation, but the limiting factor remains the morbidity of treating such a large volume of tumor. Intrapleural infusion of cisplatinum has some promise but remains in the early stages experimentation. The areas of furthering treatment options are numerous. Combined modality treatment or the use of more than one treatment may be beneficial. The use of surgery combined with either radiation or chemotherapy has been shown to increase the median survival by nearly double .