What kind of surgery might I have for peritoneal mesothelioma?
The diagnosis of mesothelioma might in fact be made during exploratory abdominal surgery, either a laparoscopy, in which a small tube allows the doctor to look around the abdomen, or a laparotomy, which means surgically opening up the abdomen.
Sometimes surgery involves removing all the visible tumor and the associated peritoneum. In most cases, there are mesotheliomas all over the abdomen, stuck to the peritoneum. The goal of surgery is to remove as much as possible, hopefully everything visible. Removing large tumors can relieve pressure on internal organs. One of the newer approaches to abdominal mesothelioma is to do this surgery, called a “debulking procedure,” and then put heated chemotherapy agents into the abdomen, to kill any remaining tumor cells. There has been good initial success with these treatments.