How is Chemotherapy Used to Treat Mesothelioma?

[MUSIC PLAYING] Chemotherapy is, of course, the use of toxic agents, which can usually be given intravenously, either alone-- meaning one drug-- or in combination against patients who have mesothelioma. How does it work? Well, some of them we know how they work, others we still don't quite have a firm understanding as to how and why they kill mesothelioma cells. And there are certain types of mesothelioma where the mesothelioma is totally resistant to them. All right. So how they work is for most patients secondary to their ability to disrupt the mechanisms within the cell, within the tumor cell that cause the tumor cells to what we call go into apoptosis, or go into a situation where the tumor cell itself cannot survive within that microenvironment caused by the chemotherapy surrounding the tumor cells. How do we give it? Well, we normally give it intravenously. It can be given before the surgery, or it can be given after the surgery. I think most surgeons would rather see it given after the surgery such that the stress of the patient after surgery is minimized. [MUSIC PLAYING]