When you receive a mesothelioma diagnosis, you’ll need to absorb a lot of medical information. You’ll hear terms that are new and may be confusing at first. You need a mesothelioma glossary to guide you.
Here is your mesothelioma glossary: definitions of terms related to mesothelioma treatments, mesothelioma types, and more.
| Adjuvant Therapy | A treatment given in addition to and after another treatment. For example, chemotherapy may be used as an adjuvant therapy after mesothelioma surgery. |
| Angiogenesis Inhibitors | Angiogenesis is the process of growing blood vessels to provide extra blood supply. Cancerous tumors often stimulate this process because they need a lot of blood to grow. Angiogenesis inhibitors cut off the blood supply to cancerous tumors. |
| Asbestos | A naturally-occurring mineral that was widely used in manufacturing until the early 1970s. It is toxic to humans and can cause diseases such as mesothelioma and lung cancer. Many countries have banned the use of asbestos because of the danger. The United States original asbestos ban was overturned in the early 1990s. |
| Biopsy | The removal of a tissue sample for lab testing to determine such things as whether a tumor is cancerous and whether that cancer is mesothelioma. Further lab work on biopsied tissue can determine mesothelioma cell type and whether your tumor is PD-L1 positive. There are several types of biopsies, from minimally-invasive procedures to excisional biopsies, which remove the whole tumor. |
| Biphasic Cell | One of the three most common cell types found in mesothelioma tumors. Biphasic tumors have a combination of epithelioid and sarcomatoid cells. The characteristics of the tumor are determined by what percentage of each cell type is present. |
| Brachytherapy | Also called sealed source radiotherapy or internal radiotherapy, this type of radiation treatment involves inserting small radioactive seeds or tubes near your tumor. Brachytherapy applies a concentrated dose of radiation to the site of your mesothelioma cancer. |
| Checkpoint Inhibitor | A type of immunotherapy drug that works by getting in the way of the pathway that some mesothelioma tumors use to shut down your body’s immune reaction. Checkpoint inhibitors, also called checkpoint blockers, often work to block the pathway between the protein PD-L1 and receptors for that protein on your immune system’s T cells. |
| Chemotherapy | Chemotherapy treatment for mesothelioma using powerful drugs to kill cancer cells. There are many different types of chemotherapy drugs, your doctor may give you more than one chemotherapy drug. |
| Clinical Trial | When researchers are ready to study the effects of a new drug or treatment for mesothelioma, they will set up clinical trials. These studies involve at least three phases. Each phase involves a wider pool of subjects than the last. Mesothelioma patients often enroll in clinical trials to get access to experimental and cutting-edge treatments. |
| Debulking Surgery | Also called cytoreductive surgery, this is the most common surgery for peritoneal mesothelioma. As the name suggests, this surgery removes as much of the bulk of the mesothelioma tumor as possible. This surgery is often accompanied by a chemotherapy treatment called HIPEC. |
| Diffuse Mesothelioma | Some mesothelioma cancers are not consolidated into one or two solid tumors but composed of small clusters of cancerous cells spread out across the mesothelium. |
| Drug-To-Light Interval | The time between the application of photosensitizers and the application of special light in photodynamic therapy. |
| Epithelioid Cell | The most common mesothelioma cell type. Mesothelioma tumors with the epithelioid cell type are the most responsive to treatment. |
| External Beam Radiotherapy (EBRT) | The most common type of radiation treatment. High intensity X-rays or electron beams are focused on your tumor from several angles to kill off cancerous tissue while doing the least harm to the healthy tissue around the tumor. |
| Extrapleural Pneumonectomy (EPP) | EPP is a major mesothelioma surgery that removes the lung affected by the mesothelioma tumor, as well as the pleura, part of the diaphragm, and part of the pericardium. |
| Fine-Needle Aspiration | Also called needle aspiration, this procedure uses a long needle to extract fluid from your tumor or the area around it. Your doctor may analyze this fluid to try and determine the type of your cancer; however, most mesothelioma tumors cannot be diagnosed from a fluid sample and require a biopsy. |
| First-Line Mesothelioma Treatment | The treatments that are the first line of defense for a disease are called first-line treatments. First-line treatments for mesothelioma are chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation. |
| Histology | The study of microscopic cells. |
| Histopathologist | The specialist who may study your biopsied tissue to determine the cell types present. |
| Hyperthermic Intraperitoneal Chemotherapy (HIPEC) | A regional chemotherapy treatment commonly used for peritoneal mesothelioma. The chemotherapy drugs are heated before being infused into and circulated in the abdomen near the site of the tumor. A version of this treatment, using heated chemotherapy drugs with a localized infusion, has also been developed for pleural mesothelioma. |
| Immunotherapy | A set of promising, experimental treatments for mesothelioma and other cancers. Immunotherapy drugs leverage the body’s own immune response to kill off cancerous cells. |
| Intraoperative Mesothelioma Treatment | Some mesothelioma treatments are especially effective when performed during surgery. Potential intraoperative treatments include radiation (beamed directly at the exposed tumor) and photodynamic therapy. |
| Ipilimumab (Yervoy) | An immunotherapy drug that’s often used in combination with Opdivo. |
| Keytruda (Pembrolizumab) | The best-known immunotherapy drug, Keytruda is a PD-L1 inhibitor. Some mesothelioma patients have had positive results from Keytruda. |
| Mesothelioma | A rare form of cancer caused by exposure to asbestos. At this time, there is no known cure, but new and emerging treatments offer mesothelioma patients hope for longer survival times. Because mesothelioma is almost always caused by the deliberate misconduct or negligent use of asbestos by corporations, mesothelioma patients may be entitled to money from asbestos trust funds and from defendants and their insurers sued in Court, from legal settlements or verdicts. |
| Mesothelioma Cell Types | There are three main types of cancer cells that make up mesothelioma tumors: epithelioid, sarcomatoid, and biphasic. Within these cell types, there are numerous subtypes. Mesothelioma cell types are important because different cell types respond to different types of treatment. |
| Mesothelium | The lining around your many internal organs. This sensitive tissue is particularly susceptible to harm from asbestos fibers. There are different layers within this lining: the visceral mesothelium clings to your internal organs while the parietal mesothelium is the outer layer that is closer to the inside of the walls of your chest and abdomen. |
| Metastasize | When cancer cells from a tumor spread to another part of the body, the cancer has metastasized. If your pleural mesothelioma spreads to your esophagus, this new tumor will be metastatic pleural mesothelioma, not esophageal cancer. This metastatic cancer is more dangerous and harder to treat than the original tumor, so a large focus of mesothelioma treatment is to prevent metastases. |
| Monoclonal Antibody | A biochemical tool: identical cells that all bind with the exact same part of another cell. Some immunotherapy drugs are monoclonal antibodies. |
| Monotherapy | Treating mesothelioma with just one drug or other treatment. Most mesothelioma patients receive multimodal therapy, as this has been found to be much more effective than monotherapy. |
| Multimodal Mesothelioma Treatment | Treating mesothelioma with two or more types of treatment. Common mesothelioma multimodal treatments are surgery followed by chemotherapy and chemotherapy combined with radiation. |
| Neoadjuvant Therapy | A treatment given in advance of a primary treatment. An example of neoadjuvant therapy is radiation given to reduce the size of a tumor before surgery. |
| Oncologist | A doctor who specializes in the treatment of cancer. Some oncologists specialize even further, focusing on one type of cancer or one area of the body. There are a number of oncologists in the US who specialize in treating mesothelioma patients. |
| Opdivo (Nivolumab) | A checkpoint blocker immunotherapy that has shown promising results for mesothelioma patients in clinical trials. |
| Oral Chemotherapy | Chemotherapy that is taken in the form of a liquid or a pill. |
| Palliative Care | The type of care given to reduce pain and suffering when mesothelioma can’t be treated. Palliative care for mesothelioma may include pain medications and fluid removal to reduce pressure on the internal organs. |
| Pathologist | A doctor who diagnoses disease by examining body fluids and tissues in the laboratory. |
| PD-L1 Inhibitor | Immunotherapy drugs such as Keytruda and TECENTRIQ block PD-L1 from binding with and shutting down your T cells. These are called PD-L1 inhibitors and are also known as checkpoint blockers. |
| Pericardial Mesothelioma | A rare form of this rare type of cancer. Pericardial mesothelioma affects the lining around the heart or the pericardium. |
| Pericardiectomy | Surgery that opens up and often removes at least part of the pericardium, in cases of pericardial mesothelioma, to remove as much of the cancer as possible. |
| Pericardiocentesis | A procedure used to reduce fluid buildup in the pericardium. |
| Pericardium | The lining or mesothelium that surrounds the heart. |
| Peritoneal Mesothelioma | The second most common form of mesothelioma, peritoneal mesothelioma accounts for around 20 percent of mesothelioma cases. It affects the lining around the organs of the abdomen and is commonly treated with debulking surgery and a type of chemotherapy called HIPEC. |
| Peritoneum | The lining or mesothelium inside your abdomen. |
| Photodynamic Therapy | Also called photochemotherapy or phototherapy, this mesothelioma treatment uses a photosensitizing chemical and a special light to kill cancer cells. This treatment is often used in combination with surgery. |
| Platinum-Based Chemotherapy | Platinum-based chemotherapy drugs, also called a platins, are often used in combination with other chemotherapy drugs. Cisplatin and Carboplatin are the two most commonly used platinum-based chemotherapy drugs. |
| Pleura | The lining or mesothelium that surrounds your lungs. |
| Pleural Mesothelioma | The most common type of mesothelioma. Almost three quarters of mesothelioma patients have this form of the disease. It affects the pleura, or the lining around your lungs. When caught early enough, pleural mesothelioma is treated with surgery (most often P/D surgery) and chemotherapy. |
| Pleurectomy/Decortication (P/D) | The most common surgery for mesothelioma patients. Also called lung-sparing surgery, P/D starts with the pleurectomy, to open ans remove the affected pleura and, if needed, part of the diaphragm and the pericardium. After these tissues are removed, the surgeon completes the decortication part of the procedure: carefully removing cancerous tissue from the surface of your lung. Recovery from this surgery is much easier than from EPP, so this has become the preferred surgery for mesothelioma patients. |
| Programmed Death-Ligand 1 (PD-L1) | A protein expressed by some cancer cells, PD-L1 binds with T cells and sends them the message to stand down. While this is important for the body in some circumstances, cancerous tumors sometimes produce an excess amount of PD-L1 to fool your immune system. Checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy treatments use various methods to prevent this and turn on your killer T cells. |
| Radiation | One of the three first-line treatments for mesothelioma. Radiation is almost never used on its own for mesothelioma patients, but can be an important part of multimodal therapy. |
| Regional Chemotherapy | A chemotherapy treatment such as HIPEC, which is delivered directly to the site of the cancer, usually by infusion. |
| Sarcomatoid Cell | A type of cell found in mesothelioma tumors; also called the fibrous cell type. Less common than epithelioid, sarcomatoid cells are more difficult to kill with the currently available mesothelioma treatments. |
| Second-Line Mesothelioma Treatment | A treatment that doctors will use when first-line treatments are no longer working. Second-line treatments offer a way to extend hope and survival time for mesothelioma patients. |
| Staging | When you get diagnosed with mesothelioma, part of that diagnosis will be the stage of your cancer. Stage 1 is the earliest stage and indicates that the cancer is localized. Stage 4 indicates that the cancer is advanced and has spread to other parts of your body or metastasized. The stage doesn’t necessarily reflect how long you have had mesothelioma. Some tumors grow very slowly and others are aggressive and grow and metastasize very quickly. |
| Standard of Care | The treatment considered to be the best for mesothelioma patients, based on scientific evidence. The standard of care treatment for mesothelioma is currently surgery plus chemotherapy (and possibly radiation) for early stage mesothelioma patients. |
| Systemic Chemotherapy | Chemotherapy that is delivered to your system, either orally or intravenously. While this form of chemotherapy doesn’t enter your body at the site of your tumor, the chemotherapy drugs seek out the cancer cells. The benefit of systemic chemotherapy is that the drugs can catch cancerous cells wherever they are in your body, even if they have begun to migrate away from the original tumor. |
| T Cells | The powerhouse fighter cells of your immune system. The immunotherapy drugs most often used for mesothelioma patients work to activate T cells so they can kill off cancer cells. |
| TECENTRIQ (Atezolizumab) | An emerging immunotherapy treatment, not yet approved for mesothelioma. TECENTRIQ is a checkpoint inhibitor drug. |
| Testicular Mesothelioma | A very rare form of mesothelioma that affects the tunica vaginalis or the lining that surrounds the inside of the testicles. When caught early and treated with surgery, this form of mesothelioma has the longest survival rate of any type of mesothelioma. |
| TNM Staging | The preferred staging system for specifying the progression of mesothelioma cancers. The initials stand for Tumor, Node, Metastasis. In the early stages, the cancer is localized to the original tumor. In the middle stages, it has spread to the lymph nodes. By the later stages, it has metastasized to other parts of the body. |
| Tremelimumab | A promising immunotherapy treatment for mesothelioma. This treatment has been granted Orphan Drug status for mesothelioma, which will make it easier for tremelimumab to get FDA approval as a mesothelioma treatment. |
| Tunica Vaginalis | The lining or mesothelium inside your testicles. |