How do I know where I should receive treatment?
Nowadays this is a difficult question to answer easily. You should get treatment at the place best able to take care of you. That would be the closest facility with the most experience. Ideally, it would be a mesothelioma treatment center.
You will actually need a team of doctors as explained above.
In addition you will be seeing nurses and therapists and dietitians, whoever you need to help you.
You many have trouble with your insurance getting to a treatment center. Hopefully your regular doctor will be able to help convince your insurance to send you to one if that is what you want.
There are not a lot of mesothelioma treatment centers. If you live in New York, California, or Illinois, you may be able to find one that is not too far from home. Most of the states have anywhere from 2 to 4 centers, which may or may not be near you. Some states have no mesothelioma treatment centers, including Maine and Idaho. You may want to make the trip to make sure of your diagnosis, and to find out what treatment you will be offered. If you need surgery, you must be at a place where the surgeons have a lot of experience doing the procedures.
Besides a mesothelioma treatment center, many large medical centers that are affiliated with medical schools are very well-equipped to take care of patients with mesothelioma.
If the center is far from home, and you are advised to get chemotherapy, you may be able to do that closer to home. If your regular doctor made the diagnosis of mesothelioma, and the people treating you determine that you probably should have chemotherapy, an oncologist in your community may be able to do that. There are now good protocols to follow. He or she might even be able to participate in a clinical trial.
Your financial situation must be considered, as well as your legal situation.
In the end, you and your doctors may decide the best treatment for you would be to enroll in a clinical trial. You would then be getting treatment at the closest facility to you that is participating in the trial.