It’s Possible to Stretch Mesothelioma Survival for Many Years
After receiving the news that they have cancer, many people almost reflexively ask how long they’ve got to live.
The answer is “It depends.”
There are a number of factors that influence mesothelioma survival.
The biggest factor is the type and quality of treatment. But also playing a role are where in the body the mesothelioma started, the type of mesothelioma cell making up the tumors, the extent to which the mesothelioma progressed at the time it was diagnosed, and the underlying health of the patient.
People who are diagnosed with mesothelioma can live anywhere from six months to six years or longer (some have been known to live 15 years; the current record is 22 years).
Those who live a shorter time tend to be those who weren’t diagnosed until the disease was far advanced, leaving them fewer viable treatment options. They also tend to be those who have a mesothelioma cell type that doesn’t respond well to treatment and who have other health issues (such as they are extremely old and are in poor physical condition).
The opposite is true for those who live a longer time. These patients tend to have discovered mesothelioma while it was in an early stage of development (and thus highly treatable). They also tend to have a mesothelioma cell type that responds well to treatment, and they have few or no underlying health issues.
Mesothelioma point of origin
Mesothelioma that begins on the pleura surrounding the lungs is called pleural mesothelioma. If it begins on the lining of the abdomen, it is called peritoneal mesothelioma. If over the heart, pericardial mesothelioma. And, if around the testes, testicular mesothelioma.
Survival times for patients with pleural mesothelioma are usually longer than those associated with the other forms of mesothelioma. The exception is testicular mesothelioma—patients with testicular mesothelioma have a survival prognosis roughly twice as long as that typically given to patients with pleural mesothelioma.
The form of mesothelioma with normally the shortest survival time is pericardial mesothelioma. That shortness may be due to the fact that the organ involved is the heart. The heart is smaller than the lungs, so the cancer doesn’t have to claim as much anatomic real-estate in order to produce organ failure.
Mesothelioma cell types
There are three types of mesothelioma cell. They are epithelioid, sarcomatoid, and biphasic.
Epithelioid cells are easiest to treat. Additionally, epithelioid cells grow and spread slower than the other two types of mesothelioma cell. Because they are more treatable and don’t progress rapidly, epithelioid-type mesothelioma cells usually indicate that the patient will have a better prognosis than patients with sarcomatoid-type mesothelioma.
The reason is that sarcomatoid cells are the hardest to treat. They also tend to grow and spread quickly.
The third type of mesothelioma cell—biphasic—is a blend of the other two. Biphasic cells are more treatable than sarcomatoid cells but less treatable than epithelioid cells. As a result, patients with the biphasic cell type can expect a prognosis better than if they had the sarcomatoid type although not as good as if they had the epithelioid type.
Mesothelioma staging
When a mesothelioma patient is first diagnosed as having the disease, it’s crucial to know at that moment how far advanced it has progressed. This insight enables doctors to build the best possible treatment strategy.
Cancer specialists have developed a method of categorizing the extent of progression. They call this staging.
There are four primary stages of mesothelioma progression.
In Stage 1, the cancer is likely confined to just a small single tumor. Treatment of a Stage 1 cancer usually offers a high probability of success and, by extension, a prognosis for long survival.
In Stage 2, the cancer that has grown but not yet spread beyond the lining of the organ that was first involved. Stage 2 mesothelioma is more challenging to treat, but good outcomes that can appreciably extend survival time remain a possibility.
In Stage 3, the cancer has started to spread. The medical term for this is metastasis. A metastasizing Stage 3 tumor is much harder to treat. For example, in Stages 1 and 2, surgery is an option, but, in Stage 3, surgery may or may not be possible. Losing the opportunity for mesothelioma surgery can result in a shorter survival time.
In Stage 4, the cancer is far advanced. It has spread possibly throughout the body, making it exceedingly challenging to treat. Accordingly, survival time is shortest.
Underlying health status
A newly diagnosed mesothelioma patient who also has a respiratory condition such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or emphysema will probably be at a distinct disadvantage in the fight to survive mesothelioma. The same is true of patients with other, even more common conditions including obesity and diabetes.
Another factor affecting a patient’s ability to battle back against mesothelioma is age. Mesothelioma tends to attack the oldest adults, those 55 and up. Unfortunately, people in that age range tend to have health issues that mesothelioma can exploit. Some of those health issues are caused by old age itself.
Then there is the patient’s sex. Men more than women tend to develop mesothelioma. However, women tend to have longer survival with mesothelioma than do men. The reasons for this are not entirely clear.
Plainly, many factors influence mesothelioma survival. To recap, these factors include the type and quality of treatment, type of mesothelioma, type of cell making up the mesothelioma tumors, how far advanced the cancer is at the time of diagnosis, and the underlying health of the patient.
Understand, however, that no two mesothelioma patients with identical survival factors can expect to live with the disease the exact same amount of time. Every case is different enough that the best doctors can do is make broad predictions about survival.
The good news is that doctor predictions are nothing more than that—predictions. It is possible to outlive a prognosis.
Learn more about the possibilities by downloading this free guide.