It is the nature of humans to want to better themselves, to make things better for their own life and the lives of people around them. This is the basic goal of all kinds of science, and it is the overlying goal towards which the scientific method is aimed. Science is designed to use the efforts of many to build upon itself to greater and greater understanding of the universe. Along the way, they come up with tools, procedures, activities and substances that will benefit the lives of the people.

Medical science is a specific kind of science, and researchers in that field are perhaps the perfect example of this. Every bit of research that is undertaken in medical science is done with the immediate and direct goal of benefiting the human race. Breakthroughs in medical fields result in instant benefits to people around the world. This simple fact is what sets medical science apart from all of the others both in terms of the large facilities and the heavy funding involved.

When one is dealing with a disease like cancer, the research being done is progressing quickly. While most of the research in the cancer field is on developing new chemotherapy agents, there are still some focused on other areas and it is these experimental techniques that are discussed briefly below. There are a number of experimental techniques that doctors and other medical professionals use in the treatment of mesothelioma and a few of them are explained below.

Immunotherapy: It is perhaps a bit disingenuous to include immunotherapy in both the experimental and the conventional treatment articles, but at the same time it is oddly appropriate given the history of immunotherapy. It started out as a very conventional treatment and over the years has shifted from being a conventional treatment to being an experimental one. Doctors will not attempt to use immunotherapy on a patient until all the other avenues (i.e. chemotherapy, surgery etc.) have been exhausted. It is this mindset more than anything else that creates the distinction between conventional and experimental treatments and it is for this reason that some may consider immunotherapy to be an experimental treatment.

Hypnosis: Treating the symptoms, instead of the disease, is a big part of cancer treatment. Since no current cure exists for cancer, in the event that chemotherapy is unsuccessful, there is little s doctor can do but attempt to treat symptoms as they occur and hope that somewhere down the line one of the conventional treatments will be able to achieve a breakthrough against the cancer. Mesothelioma patients in particular tend to suffer from a lot of pain during the course of their illness, and many doctors have hired hypnotists to attempt to help the patient take their mind off the pain. Many hospitals keep a hypnotist on staff for such events, but in the medical community at large, hypnosis is still regarded as largely experimental.

Psychotherapy: Have you ever heard of the expression mind over matter? This is the basis behind psychotherapy as it is used to combat illnesses like cancer. Mesothelioma patients may sometimes undergo psychotherapy if conventional treatments have failed and the doctor believes that the patient requires help in their mental state. Psychotherapy itself is not an experimental treatment, but in the relation to treating mesothelioma and other cancers it is still in the experimental stage.