Treatments for peritoneal mesothelioma
Peritoneal mesothelioma can spread quickly throughout the abdomen, so most people have advanced disease when they are diagnosed. The goal of treatment is to control the cancer for as long as possible, manage symptoms and improve quality of life, rather than to try to remove all of the cancer.
The following are treatment options for peritoneal mesothelioma. Your healthcare team will suggest treatments based on your needs and work with you to develop a treatment plan.
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy uses drugs to destroy cancer cells. It is the main treatment for peritoneal mesothelioma.
Chemotherapy is given as a regional therapy. This means that the chemotherapy drugs are put directly into the peritoneal cavity. This is called intraperitoneal chemotherapy. When the drugs are heated before they are put into the body, it is called hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy.
The chemotherapy drugs can be put into the abdominal cavity during surgery. For people who don’t have surgery, the chemotherapy drugs are put into the peritoneal cavity through a hollow tube (catheter) placed into the abdomen.
The most common chemotherapy drugs used for intraperitoneal chemotherapy are:
- cisplatin
- mitomycin
- doxorubicin
- carboplatin
Sometimes cisplatin is combined with either mitomycin or doxorubicin.
Find out more about chemotherapy for mesothelioma.
Surgery
Most people will not have surgery to treat peritoneal mesothelioma. This is because the cancer has usually spread too much to be completely removed.
But surgery can be done to relieve symptoms caused by peritoneal mesothelioma. It can be used to:
- remove as much of the cancer as possible (called debulking surgery)
- drain fluid that has built up in the abdomen (called paracentesis)
Find out more about surgery for mesothelioma.
Radiation therapy
Radiation therapy uses high-energy rays or particles to destroy cancer cells. External radiation therapy may be used to relieve pain and control symptoms of advanced peritoneal mesothelioma (called palliative radiation therapy). It isn’t used as a main treatment because many of the organs in the abdomen are sensitive to the effects of radiation.
Find out more about radiation therapy for mesothelioma.
Clinical trials
Talk to your doctor about clinical trials open to people with peritoneal mesothelioma. Clinical trials look at new ways to prevent, find and treat cancer. Find out more about clinical trials.
If you can’t have or don’t want cancer treatment
You may want to consider a type of care to make you feel better without treating the cancer itself. This may be because the cancer treatments don’t work anymore, they’re not likely to improve your condition or they may cause side effects that are hard to cope with. There may also be other reasons why you can’t have or don’t want cancer treatment.
Talk to your healthcare team. They can help you choose care and treatment for advanced cancer.
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