Radiation therapy is another treatment of choice for mesothelioma which is a cancer from exposure to asbestos.
There are different types of radiation therapy that are used to treat mesothelioma. But the way radiation therapy works is it uses high-energy x-rays and/or particles to kill cancer cells. Radiation damages the DNA of mesothelioma and other cancer cells thus killing those cells while attempting to unharm the healthy surrounding cells and tissue. Cancer cells do not repair themselves as quickly as normal cells. So when some normal cells are damaged during radiation therapy many of them are able to repair themselves.
The most common type of radiation used to fight mesothelioma is external beam radiation therapy. For external beam radiation therapy the doctor or doctors will carefully mark exactly where they want the radiation beam to attack the mesothelioma cancer. This usually takes one or more doctor visits alone. Then once that's done. They will begin treatments on the marked area.
Treatments usually are five days a week for several weeks.
The side affects depend upon where the radiation is being applied. If the mesothelioma is in the lungs (pleural mesothelioma) a side affect could be shortness of breath and cough. And if the cancer is in the abdomen (peritoneal mesothelioma), the side affects could include nausea, vomiting and/or diarrhea. For some people the side affects are more severe than for others.
As mentioned above there are other types of radiation therapy. One type is Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT). This type is mostly computer controlled and the computer moves about zapping the mesothelioma cancer cells. And there is also Brachytherapy which involves placing tiny radiation pellets or other sources of radiation inside the mesothelioma tumors.
I will discuss IMRT and Brachytherapy in more detail later on. Just know that especially in larger hospitals, there are several different ways of fighting mesothelioma through radiation therapy.
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