One of the most common health issues that causes military families to seek medical assistance in California is mesothelioma. This devastating disease is directly correlated to asbestos exposure and is therefore commonly found in older individuals. This is what makes it one of the most rampant diseases that the members of a veterans association in Los Angeles are forced to deal with. That is why this guide is here to provide some much needed information regarding mesothelioma and the treatments to help deal with it. 

What Is Mesothelioma?

In order to understand the treatment process for this disease, it is first important to understand what this disease even is. As previously mentioned, mesothelioma is a medical condition that is caused by exposure to asbestos. 

When excessive amounts of asbestos have been exposed to the body, it causes cancer to form around the lining of some organs. This condition is called mesothelioma and is incredibly deadly, especially in older patients. That is why is incredibly important that someone gets diagnosed and treated as soon as possible for this condition. 

This unfortunate disease often comes in four different types. If it affects the lining of the lungs, then it is what is known as pleural mesothelioma. Some of the other areas that it can affect include the stomach lining, which is peritoneal mesothelioma, the heart sac, which is the pericardial mesothelioma, and the testicular lining. 

Treating Mesothelioma 

Treating any type of mesothelioma usually involves some combination of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. These processes can often take several weeks of appointments or hospital care at the veteran’s medical center in Los Angeles. Rather than racking up a ton of costs visiting the affected family member, families of military members and veterans can often look for VA housing nearby which will offer to house them for the duration of their family members stay at no additional cost. 

When someone has been diagnosed with some type of mesothelioma, they have to talk to their doctor to determine which form of treatment is best for them. The first form of treatment is surgery, which consists of the extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP) and Pleurectomy Decortication (P/D). With EPP the patient has the affected lung completely removed from their body and can often have any nearby areas that the mesothelioma has spread to also removed. However, if they choose P/D, then this is going to allow them to keep their affected lung and only remove the cancerous parts of the lining. 

The use of chemotherapy is also very popular during mesothelioma treatment, which is widely due to the fact that it has been shown to increase the lifespan of the patient by as much as 300 percent. The final option is radiation, which is used when surgery is not a viable solution. There are two different methods through which radiation can be administered with pleural mesothelioma. 

The first option is brachytherapy, which involves implanting radioactive material into the chest in order to kill any cancer cells that are nearby. The other radiation option that can be done is external beam radiation therapy, which involves the use of a machine that is able to deliver x-ray beams into the chest and kill the cancer cells without the need to be implanted into the body. 

Treating Mesothelioma In Elderly Patients

Since many veterans are often older individuals, it means that the medical procedures available to them are going to be slightly different than the medical procedures available to someone who has mesothelioma but is only half their age. This is largely due to the decreased strength of an elderly person's immune system, which means that complications are far more likely to happen with any form of medical treatment. 

The biggest area where this affects them when it comes to mesothelioma treatment is the option of surgery. This is widely known as the best treatment option for getting rid of mesothelioma since it involves physically removing the cancerous parts of the body from the individual. However, as previously mentioned, the surgeries involved are fairly extensive, which is not something that many doctors recommend for elderly patients to have done. Therefore, they often have to resort to using the other two methods of treatment, which are chemotherapy and radiation. 

Chemotherapy can be very useful in eliminating some of the symptoms associated with mesothelioma and slow the rate at which it is growing, but it is very unlikely that the use of just chemotherapy will result in the complete elimination of the cancer. However, if a patient is experiencing little to no symptoms and is in the early stages of the cancer, then this may be all that is required in order to keep it under control and provide the patient with a long life expectancy. 

In the case of many older patients, they may choose to seek pain management rather than full treatment of the mesothelioma. This is because, as previously mentioned, many of the treatment methods used pose some serious side effects for elderly individuals. Therefore, rather than attempting to completely treat the mesothelioma and risking the health of the individual, they would rather slow the growth of the cancer and slightly extend their life expectancy. 

Since cancer can be recurrent, there is no guarantee that using the more extensive methods such as EPP surgery are going to result in the individual be cancer-free for the rest of their life anyways. If the mesothelioma does manage to come back even after full treatment is done on it, then it becomes even harder to treat. 

The re-emergence of cancer can occur in the exact same place then started, which is known as being local, or it can be a distant recurrence where it pops up in a place that is nowhere near where it originally was. If this does occur, then it will depend on the location of the cancer and the physical health of the elderly individual in order to determine what the proper steps to take are.