Mesothelioma Life Expectancy

How to Increase Your Life Span

There are many factors that can alter the mesothelioma life expectancy. On average, once a victim is diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma, their pleural mesothelioma life expectancy is usually 8 months or less. The reason for the short life expectancy is because in most cases, by the time mesothelioma cancer has been diagnosed, the disease has reached its later stages. And since there is no mesothelioma cure, the mesothelioma survival rate is bleak.

Although the typical mesothelioma prognosis is poor, some patients can increase their mesothelioma life expectancy by up to five years or more. The number one determinant for increasing a patient’s life span is an early diagnosis. Other factors that can improve the prognosis and life expectancy are overall health of the patient, their age, and how uniform the cell type is that makes up the mesothelioma tumor.

Mesothelioma Life Expectancy is Increased With Early Diagnosis

What is mesothelioma and what causes the disease? When a person is exposed to high levels of asbestos over a long enough period of time, they can develop mesothelioma, which is a malignant tumor that usually develops in a lung. However, it can also be found to a lesser degree in other organs such as the abdominal cavity (peritoneal mesothelioma) and heart (pericardial mesothelioma). The disease can progress for decades before the first mesothelioma symptoms actually appear. Unfortunately, by the time any symptoms appear, the disease has usually advanced to its later stages, making mesothelioma treatment of little value and offering the patient a short mesothelioma life expectancy.

Diagnosing mesothelioma as early as possible will offer better mesothelioma treatment options. As an example, if a person develops mesothelioma of the lungs, also called pleural mesothelioma, and it is diagnosed in its earliest stage, before the cancer has had a chance to spread to lymph nodes and other organs in the body, it may be possible to remove the entire tumor with surgery. Adding some chemotherapy or radiation therapy to kill any remaining cancer cells may completely stop the disease altogether. However, if the tumor is not diagnosed until its later stages, after it has had a chance to spread to other places in the body, surgical removal of the mesothelioma tumor will not stop the disease.

As is very evident, the stage the disease is in when it is first diagnosed can make a huge difference in the mesothelioma life expectancy. Diagnosing mesothelioma in its earliest stage means it might be caught before it begins to spread, but it also means the patient will be younger. And the mesothelioma life expectancy can be improved when it is diagnosed at an earlier age.

Two Important Factors in the Mesothelioma Life Expectancy

As is obvious by the statements made above, the two main areas that can affect a patient’s prognosis in a positive way are treatment options and the stage of the disease when a diagnosis is made. Advancements are being made in both of these areas and offer hope of increased mesothelioma life expectancies.

Advancements in diagnosis offer the greatest hope, because any time a mesothelioma diagnosis can be made in the very earliest stages, it allows doctors to implement a more aggressive mesothelioma treatment plan that can drastically improve the prognosis. Who knows, maybe one day it’ll be possible to get mesothelioma diagnosed so early, treatment will offer a full recovery with no decrease in a patient’s life span. However, that’s not the case today, which makes it important to follow certain guidelines.

If you have been exposed to asbestos you should begin getting regular medical checkups in an effort to diagnose mesothelioma in its earliest stage. It may never develop, but if it does, it’s important to diagnose it as early as possible to give yourself the greatest mesothelioma life expectancy. You can’t wait until mesothelioma symptoms develop because by the time they appear, the average life expectancy is only about six to eight months on average.

Acknowledgement: Image of chest CT with right sided medial mesothelioma provided courtesy of Dr. Frank Gaillard.