UCLA Mesothelioma Care Employs Lung-sparing Surgery and Unique Treatment Approach
UCLA’s Mesothelioma treatment program focuses on research and experience and has pioneered the use of therapies, such as immunotherapy and cryoablation which have led to significant advances in care. At UCLA, basic science and clinical research have suggested some unique approaches that are helping to make inroads in the management of mesothelioma.
“UCLA has developed a program to treat these unusual tumors — including the very rare sarcomatoid type — that centers on lung-sparing surgery and treating the disease as a chronic illness, focusing on treatments that improve our patients’ quality of life,” explains Robert B. Cameron, M.D., FACS, professor and director of UCLA’s Comprehensive Mesothelioma Program.
About 15 percent of mesothelioma cases are of the sarcomatoid type, which tends to be both invasive and metastatic. As a rule, surgeons will not operate on these patients as the cancer is difficult to remove and the patients have not typically fared well with any treatments.