After the diagnostic process, doctors will analyze their mesothelioma patient’s clinical data to predict the expected course and outcome for the disease. This prediction is known as the patient’s prognosis.
Past studies indicate that average survival ranges from four to 18 months, but many factors can significantly affect the prognosis of pleural mesothelioma patients. The most substantial factors include the current stage of disease and the overall health of the patient. Staging is a system doctors use to describe how far the mesothelioma has advanced, so diagnosis at an early stage offers a better prognosis. And patients in good health who can still perform normal daily tasks tend to respond better to the demands of treatment.
Other important prognostic factors include the patient’s age, sex and smoking history. Survival is generally better for female patients, non-smokers and patients younger than 55. The cancer’s histology, or the cellular structure of the tumor, can also strongly influence prognosis. Accounting for 50 to 70 percent of all cases, a subtype known as epithelial mesothelioma offers the most hopeful prognosis. Patients with epithelial mesothelioma respond best to treatment, and other subtypes like sarcomatoid and mixed mesothelioma are associated with poorer survival.
Providing mesothelioma patients with an accurate prognosis can be a challenging task for doctors. Not only is pleural mesothelioma a rare disease, but it is also uncommon for patients to be diagnosed at an early stage. Because most patients don’t qualify for surgery and an operation is required for accurate staging, survival data for stage I and stage II is limited.
Overall, around 40 percent of pleural mesothelioma patients survive one year after a diagnosis. Approximately 20 percent survive for two or more years, and 10 percent will be alive five years later. It is important, however, to understand that these statistics are drawn from large samples of patients. Each individual case is unique, so survival statistics should only serve as general guidelines.
Patients can work with the nation’s top mesothelioma specialists to improve their prognosis and discuss treatment options to extend life expectancy. Many mesothelioma survivors have turned to a dynamic treatment plan that unites traditional and alternative medicine to boost prognosis.