Will I know if treatment is working? With the side effects from chemotherapy, how will I be able to tell? What if my tumor “remains stable?”
During treatment, your doctors will be monitoring the size of your tumor and if it has spread, they will be watching those areas too. They will be seeing you regularly, and be checking on all aspects of your health. You will have blood work done regularly, and scans periodically to look at the size of the tumor, as well as any possible spread of the tumor.
Treatment progress, in terms of chemotherapy or radiation therapy is often measured by the size of the tumor. If the tumor is shrinking, the treatment is working. Obviously doctors would like all signs of the tumor to disappear (a “complete response”), but that rarely if ever happens with mesothelioma. So they will give you a percentage to tell you how much the tumor has been reduced in size. If the tumor is shrinking, treatment will be continued.
If your tumor does not shrink at all during a round of chemotherapy, the doctors will probably recommend a change to a different regimen. It is still good if it is not getting bigger.
With a surgical procedure, the doctors will have some idea based on the results of the surgery, as to whether or not they were able to remove a small amount of tumor, a large amount of tumor or most of the tumor. From then on, if you get chemotherapy or radiation therapy, they will still be watching the size of the tumor.
It is true that the symptoms of the cancer and the side effects of the chemotherapy may seem similar at times. But after your chemotherapy is over, say six rounds, you will get a chance to see how you feel.