Post-Surgery Mesothelioma Treatment: Key to Survival for Elderly Patients?
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Post-Surgery Mesothelioma Treatment: Key to Survival for Elderly Patients?

ByAlex Strauss

Ability to tolerate post-surgery mesothelioma treatment is one of the most important survival factors for elderly mesothelioma patients. That is according to a new article in the Annals of Surgical Oncology. The article says surgery alone will not help older mesothelioma patients live longer. It says they need post-surgery mesothelioma treatments like chemotherapy to get the survival benefits of surgery. But, as a recent mesothelioma study demonstrated, surgery can weaken some older patients. These patients may then be too fragile to have other treatments that could extend their lives. Few Older Patients Have Post-Surgery Mesothelioma Treatment As Surviving Mesothelioma recently reported, many mesothelioma patients over 80 get no treatment at all. In more than 60 percent of cases, mesothelioma doctors…

Many Elderly Mesothelioma Patients Get No Treatment
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Many Elderly Mesothelioma Patients Get No Treatment

ByAlex Strauss

The majority of elderly mesothelioma patients are observed rather than treated and this can have a negative impact on their survival. That is the finding of a new study published in the Annals of Surgical Oncology. The study included more than 4,500 mesothelioma patients. Less than a quarter of these patients received any treatment for their mesothelioma. As a result, most of these patients lived less than six months. Treatment Options for Elderly Mesothelioma Patients Exposure to asbestos causes pleural mesothelioma. It can take decades after exposure for mesothelioma symptoms to occur. The median age for a malignant pleural mesothelioma diagnosis is 72. The older a patient is at diagnosis, the more likely they are to have other health problems….

Study Reveals Mesothelioma Chemotherapy May Be Underused in Older Patients
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Study Reveals Mesothelioma Chemotherapy May Be Underused in Older Patients

ByAlex Strauss

The older a mesothelioma patient is, the less likely he or she may be to receive mesothelioma chemotherapy. A new study says many older mesothelioma sufferers may be paying the price in shorter lifespans. Chemotherapy with pemetrexed (Alimta) and cisplatin is the gold standard for mesothelioma treatment. Many studies have linked it with longer mesothelioma survival. But an Australian study suggests that not enough older people are receiving mesothelioma chemotherapy. In fact, the older they are, the less likely they are to have chemotherapy for their mesothelioma. As a result, their chances of dying from malignant mesothelioma are higher. Mesothelioma Chemotherapy is Standard of Care Malignant mesothelioma is a hard-to-treat cancer with a poor prognosis. Mesothelioma chemotherapy is the primary…