If your doctor recently diagnosed you with malignant pleural mesothelioma, one of the first things your doctor may have done is to determine whether you are a candidate for surgery. If you do not fall into the 10% to 20% of certain individuals diagnosed with MPM, then surgery is not an option.
Sadly, under these circumstances, your doctor probably told you that the prognosis not good. Ordinarily, you would receive palliative care, but in May 2019, the Food and Drug Administration approved a new treatment for MPM that could extend your life.
The NovoTTF-100L System
Novocure’s NovoTFF-100L System works with pemetrexed plus platinum-based chemotherapy. This treatment uses tumor treating fields, or electric fields, that disrupt the division of solid tumor cancer cells. One of the benefits of this treatment is that it is non-invasive. During the trial done to evaluate the efficacy and safety of the treatment, researchers determined that the only side effect of note from the system itself was mild to moderate irritation of the skin where you would attach the device to your body.
If you have a sensitivity to conductive hydrogels or an electronic medical implant, such as a implantable automatic defibrillators or a pacemaker, you cannot use this device. The other requirement is that your doctor receives certification in the use of the system prior to using it as a treatment for MPM.
Receiving the treatment you need
If there is a possibility this treatment could help in your case, you could ask your doctor about it. Of course, the primary problem with most treatments is the expense. You probably already know that your condition most likely resulted from exposure to asbestos. Most people end up exposed to this toxic material at work. If that is where your exposure occurred, you could be entitled to benefits to help with your medical and other care.
Pursuing benefits for asbestos-related diseases, including MPM, is not an easy process, primarily because the exposure that led to your current diagnosis most likely occurred up to five decades ago. Tracking the source of your exposure and gathering evidence to support your claim could prove problematic, and that does not even include taking your claim to court. Under these circumstances, you would be wise to discuss your claim with a Louisiana attorney experienced in helping individuals in your situation.