Mesothelioma FAQ (Gene Therapy, Immunotherapy, VATS)

How does gene therapy work?

Gene therapy is a procedure for treatment of mesothelioma cancers by altering the expression of a person's genes in line a therapeutic goal. The objective and aim of gene therapy is centred on rectifying disease at DNA level and to compensate for the abnormal genes.

How does replacement gene therapy work?

Replacement gene therapy displaces a mutated gene, most often a tumor suppressor gene, and replaces it with a normal copy of that gene which function to control cell growth and division. The p53 gene, the most known and common gene altered in cancer has turned out to be a prime target for replacement of gene, and has been successful in preventing cell growth, preventing angiogenesis that is the development of a tumor's blood supply, and to induce apoptosis.

How does knockout gene therapy work?

Knockout gene therapy aims at the products of oncogenes (a gene that can stimulate the formation of tumour) with effort to rendering them inert and decrease the growth of cell.

How does immunotherapy work?

Immunotherapy, often times referred to as biological therapy is a new procedure for the treatment of mesothelioma cancers, which applies the use the body's own immune system to fight against disease in mesothelioma patients. Medical Researchers have discovered that the body's immune system is able to identify the difference between healthy cells and mesothelioma cancers, and destroy the bad or cancerous cells.

Immunotherapy as a treatment of mesothelioma is intended to repair, incite, or improve the body's immune system's innate anticancer role.

What is VATS?

Lately, the use of video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) have turned out to be one of the most commonly used techniques in mesothelioma diagnosis. Here, mesothelioma patients are usually put under general anesthesia, and then several small ports are cut through the wall of the chest,in the case of pleural mesothelioma. Then a small camera, through a scope is inserted into one of the incision, and tissues specimens or samples are retrieved from other openings using other surgical instruments.

In several cases, thoracotomy can be replaced by this video-assisted technique, which needs a much bigger port to get access to the chest cavity, and because of its minimal invasion, mesothelioma patients usually have less pain after the procedure and a short time to recover. Thoracotomy has been used in peritoneal mesothelioma.

Mesothelioma Cancer Center - Get more info about mesothelioma treatment ways pathology, side effects, diagnosis and symptoms here.

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