Chemotherapy is not a very effective treatment for mesothelioma but it can occasionally help to ease symptoms, such as pain and breathlessness.

Many different chemotherapy drugs have been tried for the treatment of mesothelioma, but unfortunately  chemotherapy only helps a small number of people.  The benefit seen with chemotherapy is usually an improvement in symptoms and/or, occasionally, some actual shrinkage in the size of the cancer. Recent studies have shown that a new drug called pemetrexed(Alimta) when combined with.another chemotherapy(cisplatin), may be more effective in controlling mesothelioma as well as improving troublesome symptoms.

Other clinical trials are also underway in the UK to try and  find if other types of chemotherapy  may be useful for mesothelioma. One of these trials is comparing the outcome of treatment with one of two different chemotherapies (either a combination of the drugs mitomycin, vinblastine and cisplatin, or the drug vinorelbine, used on its own) with active control of any symptoms alone, without any treatment to try and control the underlying cancer.

At the moment the recommendations in the UK are that anyone who has a mesothelioma should have the chance to discuss with a specialist, whether or not chemotherapy might help them.  So your father could certainly ask to see a chemotherapy specialist to talk about the possibility of drug treatment in his situation.