Mesothelioma Prognosis

Approximately 2,000 to 3,000 new cases of mesothelioma are diagnosed each year in the United States. Once a patient is diagnosed a doctor will invariably discuss their prognosis, or probable course and outcome of the disease’s influence on the body.

What Factors Affect Prognosis?

Mesothelioma is not generally diagnosed until the disease is in its latest stages of development primarily because of the amount of time it takes for mesothelioma patients to display the symptoms associated with the disease. In many cases, mesothelioma symptoms do not appear until several decades after the initial asbestos exposure occurred. Additionally, the symptoms of mesothelioma are very general, and often resemble less serious conditions which can make the cancer difficult to diagnose. As a result, the prognosis for the majority of patients is poor, but many doctors can recommend treatment options such as surgery, chemotherapy and radiation to help combat the disease.

Doctors typically address the cancer in terms of stages , ranging from stage one to stage four, with the cancer’s progression increasing with each stage. A mesothelioma patient’s stage greatly affects their prognosis. Unfortunately, once mesothelioma cancer has reached stage three or four, treatment options not only become more limited but less effective as well. When a patient has stage four mesothelioma, the cancer has spread to other parts of the body, and tumors have often deeply penetrated organs and tissues. The poor general health of the patient often rules out the possibility of surgery.

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In addition to the stage of the cancer at diagnosis and the age of the patient, other factors that affect prognosis include:

• The type of mesothelioma –pleural, peritoneal, pericardial or testicular
• The size of the tumor
• The location of the tumor and whether it can be surgically removed
• The extent of other symptoms, including fluid in the lungs or abdomen
• Whether or not the patient is a smoker

Malignant mesothelioma is typically diagnosed in individuals over 55 years old, though there are certainly exceptions. Because of this, some patients who are diagnosed already have multiple medical problems caused by advancing age, making treatment even more difficult and increasing the mortality rate among mesothelioma patients.

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Mesothelioma Survival Rates

Many studies have been conducted in regards to survival rates among mesothelioma patients. When discussing survival rates for this or any type of cancer, references to the "five-year relative survival rate" are often stated. This number refers to the percentage of patients who live at least five years after their cancer is diagnosed. However, in studies involving mesothelioma patients, the figures do not include patients that pass away from diseases other than mesothelioma.

According to statistics published by the American Cancer Society, the five-year relative survival rate for patients with mesothelioma is approximately 10 percent. That number has improved in the last five years, up from 9 percent reported at the end of 2002. In addition, recent studies show that the one-year survival rate is now about 40 percent, a number that has also gone up in the past five years. Throughout the 1990s, it was rare for a patient to survive more than a year after diagnosis.

Though numerous factors affect a patient’s prognosis such as age, overall health, and the type of mesothelioma the patient is battling, in general, the average length of survival reported throughout the last five years has been 10 to 11 months after diagnosis.

Exciting stories about mesothelioma survivors continue to surface.