The use and the effectiveness of radiotherapy as treatment for mesothelioma is still under debate. The reason radiotherapy is under debate is because mesothelioma is a tumor of the tissue and surrounds some of the body’s most important organs. Doses of radiotherapy may damage the adjacent tissue in the body, such as the lungs. In an attempt to control both the dosage and the potentiality for damage to the adjacent tissue, it has been shown feasible to deliver radiotherapy doses of >45 Gy with both 3D conformal (3D-CRT) and intensity-modulated radiotherapy in cases where the patient has had surgery for stage 1 mesothelioma, and the radiotherapy is being used to try to lower the chances of the cancer coming back. This treatment is called adjuvant radiotherapy.
Radiotherapy may also be used to treat patients with stage 2, stage 3, or stage 4 mesothelioma. In these cases, radiotherapy may be administered locally to try and slow the cancer down. In cases in which mesothelioma has invaded the tracts made by chest instrumentation, low dose irradiation may be used to reduce the incidence of port metastases.
Radiotherapy may also be used to control symptoms such as obstruction or pain. The length of a patient’s treatment will depend on the type and size of the cancer and also be based on your initial diagnosis. Radiotherapy is sometimes given after fluid has been drained from around a patient’s lung. This is to try to stop new growths of mesothelioma developing on the chest wall.
Though radiotherapy may indirectly assist patients by making them more comfortable, the efficacy of radiotherapy, as reported through its use in randomized clinical trials have had highly variable results, and as such, its effectiveness in patients with mesothelioma is inconclusive and yet to be determined.
