Treatment for mesothelioma
Immunotherapy uses our to fight cancer. It works by helping the immune system recognise and attack cancer cells.
Pleural mesothelioma starts in the layer of tissue that covers the lungs (the pleura). You don’t usually have immunotherapy for mesothelioma that starts in the tissue covering the organs in your tummy (peritoneal mesothelioma).
For pleural mesothelioma, you might have immunotherapy drugs if you can’t have surgery. Immunotherapy helps to control the cancer.
You have it as your first treatment, before other treatment such as chemotherapy. You have to be fit and well enough to have immunotherapy.
For pleural mesothelioma, you have 2 immunotherapy drugs together. They are:
nivolumab
ipilimumab
They are types of immunotherapy drugs called checkpoint inhibitors. They work by blocking proteins that stop the immune system attacking cancer cells.
Find out more about immunotherapy drugs and checkpoint inhibitors
You have nivolumab and ipilimumab through a tube into your bloodstream (intravenously). You have each drug as a drip for over 30 minutes.
Your nurse may put a small tube (cannula) into one of your veins and connects the drug to it. They remove the cannula once the drip has finished.
Or you may need a central line. This is a long plastic tube that gives the drugs into a large vein, either in your chest or through a vein in your arm. It stays in the whole time you’re having treatment.
You have nivolumab once every 3 weeks, and ipilimumab once every 6 weeks.
You usually carry on having the treatment for up to 2 years if it is controlling the growth of your mesothelioma. And if your side effects are not too severe. You might need a break in treatment if you have a problem with side effects.
Find out more about how you have cancer drugs
Immunotherapy drugs can cause different side effects. Some of these can be serious. Your doctor or nurse will talk to you about this. Always tell them about any side effects you have and follow the advice they give you.
You can read about the side effects of nivolumab and ipilimumab from our A to Z list of cancer drugs.
Your doctor might ask if you’d like to take part in a clinical trial. Doctors and researchers do trials to make existing treatments better and develop new treatments.
Last reviewed: 05 Jan 2024
Next review due: 05 Jan 2027
The treatment you have depends on the stage and type of your mesothelioma. Some people with early stage mesothelioma have surgery. Other treatments include immunotherapy, chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
The staging system most commonly used in the UK for pleural mesothelioma is called the International Mesothelioma Interest Group (IMIG) system.
Mesothelioma is a cancer that most commonly starts in the sheets of skin-like tissue that cover each lung (the pleura). More rarely it starts in the sheet of tissue in the abdomen that covers the digestive system organs (the peritoneum).
Ipilimumab and nivolumab is the name of a combination of immunotherapy treatments. Find out how you have it, the side effects and other important information.
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