The best treatment for a mesothelioma is an operation to remove the tumour.  Unfortunately this is not possible for the great majority of people with this disease, because their cancer is already too far advanced by the time it is diagnosed.

 Unfortunately other  cancer treatments, like radiotherapy and chemotherapy, have seldom been able to control mesothelioma, although they may help to ease some of the symptoms of the cancer for a time.

Because it is such a difficult tumour to treat, doctors are always trying to find new types of therapy. Some of the things that have been used in recent years are:

• gene therapy: several types of gene therapy have been tried, either to try and destroy the cancer directly or to boost the body’s own defences (the immune system) to kill off cancer cells.
• photodynamic therapy (PDT): this uses laser lights to activate special drugs to kill off cancer cells.
• immunotherapy (biological response modifiers): this involves the use of drugs like interferon or interleukin-2, given either as injections under the skin or into a vein, or directly into the lining of the lung.

Unfortunately, although all these different treatments have been tested in clinical trials in recent years none of them has proved to be of any real value. 

However, recent studies have shown that a new drug called pemetrexed (Alimta) when combined with another chemotherapy (cisplatin) is more effective in controlling mesothelioma and improving survival rates than previous treatments, but unfortunately it does not offer a cure. Pemetrexed has recently been licensed in the UK for treatment of inoperable mesothelioma, in patients who have not previously had chemotherapy. Your father may find it helpful to discuss this with his specialist to see if these drugs may be useful in his situation.