Mesothelioma is an aggressive form of cancer which is diagnosed in about 2,000 to 3,000 people in the United States every year. Because of the devastating course of the disease almost all patients need sufficient palliative care. Palliative treatment is a specialized form of care to alleviate pain and other symptoms associated with mesothelioma. The primary symptoms that require some form of palliative treatment are pain and shortness of breath. Pain may be either neuropathic as a direct result of the cancer or tumors infiltration on peripheral nerves (e.g., compression by a tumor), or as a side effect of chemotherapy, radiation injury or surgery. Pain may also be felt as extreme pressure in the chest (somatic pain), due to chest wall involvement. Often there is a combination of both which affect the patient. A medical professional may provide some kind of pain medication in order to ease the distress these symptoms may cause on a patient, and can become part of their overall treatment plan. Somatic pain responds to non-steroidal analgesic drugs and opiates. Neuropathic pain may be managed with opiates and co-analgesics like antidepressants.
Shortness of breath can be especially traumatic for a patient, resulting from pleural effusion as well as entrapment of the lung by the pleural tumor. Pleurodesis either by VATS or pleuroscopy may be opted to be performed in the former case. However the latter may need symptomatic treatment with opoids as well.
Palliative care has a specialized place within the treatment of mesothelioma cancer as it improves the quality of life for the patient. For patients who are undergoing life-prolonging therapies, palliative care includes symptom management and therapy aimed at restoring function.
