Mesothelioma Specialists
A mesothelioma diagnosis is a very serious matter and understanding your treatment options is very important. That is why consulting with your primary care physician is an essential first step in finding what mesothelioma treatments are available and which one is right for you. Your doctor will provide you with the latest mesothelioma treatments available in your area if possible. However, if there are no treatments for mesothelioma in your area then your doctor or oncologist may refer you to mesothelioma specialists in the surrounding states.
A clinical trial search at the National Cancer Institute’s website http://www.cancer.gov/clinicaltrials lists the doctors and the pharmaceutical companies running clinical trials for mesothelioma.
Because they are running trials they presumably have some interest or special knowledge of this particular type of cancer. Since trials are often opening and closing it is important to occasionally run a new search at the clinical trials website shown above. For a current listing of all mesothelioma clinical trials listed by the National Cancer Institute you can also see our page on mesothelioma clinical trials. As of October 2007 there were 38 trials listed, 25 of those are in the United States.
Another way to find doctors is to run an Entrez PubMed search using the keyword mesothelioma. A list of article with their authors will be shown. Try to narrow it down by using additional keywords like pleural, and use limits to look at recent articles. Because these authors (doctors) are writing articles on mesothelioma they should have a better than average knowledge of it.
There are many mesothelioma doctors that you may need to see during the course of your therapies:
Mesothelioma Specialists – These doctors deal exclusively in mesothelioma, so they are often the greatest source of help for you in the beginning of your diagnosis with the cancer. They can direct you to resources for dealing with asbestos cancer.
Oncologists – These physicians deal exclusively with cancer and can help you direct the treatments for you’re past exposure to asbestos.
Thoracic Surgeons – These mesothelioma cancer doctors work with matters concerning the chest area, include the lining of the heart.
Pulmonologists – These lung specialists deal only with the lungs and can help you to achieve better lung function as a result.
But your main concern for mesothelioma patients at this point is how to choose the right doctors for you and your condition. Here are some questions you may want to ask yourself before choosing a doctor for your treatment:
What are their credentials?
How many cases of mesothelioma have these doctors seen?
How many cases of asbestosis have they seen?
What kind of personality do they have?
Do they take my insurance?
Are they in a convenient location?
You will also want to try to find an asbestos cancer lung treatment center staffed by doctors who will help you get the care that you need. These mesothelioma treatment clinics can be found in your local area or in the next largest city.
