Sunday, March 5, 2017

Guest post: Mesothelioma Survival Rates


Mesothelioma Survival Rates

By Christopher Visser
 
Mesothelioma (just like any other cancer type), is basically incurable. The various treatments available are aimed at slowing down the progression of the disease thereby prolonging the lifespan of the patient as well as improving his or her quality of life at the same time. Once the diagnosis of mesothelioma has been made the resulting prognosis may vary considerably depending on the stage and severity of the cancer.
By means of definition, diagnosis is simply the way of medically classifying the kind of disease an individual has, while the mesothelioma prognosis is the likely result or outcome of the disease.

 



 

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On a general level, once the diagnosis of mesothelioma is done, the resulting prognosis is usually not good in most cases. The condition that may enhance a favourable prognosis is early diagnosis. If the cancer is a stage-1 cancer (which can be very rare), then corrective surgery may be possible.

When discussing mesothelioma survival rates, it simply means the number or percentage of people who survive for a certain period of time after being diagnosed with mesothelioma. Due to the latency period of mesothelioma (20-50 years), the diagnosed patient usually has a short life expectancy based on the prognosis. This is because most of the diagnosed patients are old already and their immune system is generally weaker. So, younger patients generally have a higher life expectancy than older patients.

 Statistics on Survival Rates

The prognosis offered by doctors is based on the results that accompanied those who had the disease (at the diagnosed stage) in the past. However, it is important to note that past records do not necessarily have an effect on your present diagnosis. This is particularly so, because mesothelioma is a very rare type of cancer, so the records upon which these presented statistics are based may actually be decades before and a lot of technological advancements have taken place since then and this can help the patient to have a much higher life expectancy compared to the past records.

Many factors affect the survival rate. Such factors are: general health of the patient, the age, the kind of treatment, and the response of the cancer to treatment. So, generally, survival rates are just rough estimates at best.
 
5-Year Survival Rate

This is a term often used by doctors when discussing issues related to cancer. This simply refers to the amount of people who live above 5 years after their cancer diagnosis. The relative 5-year survival rate compares the amount of people who survive 5 years after their cancer diagnosis with that of a similar group of people (without cancer) who also survive 5 more years after their diagnosis. This particularly helps to balance the deaths from non-cancer sources.

Normal Survival Rates or Life Expectancy

·        Stage-1 mesothelioma: The general life expectancy for this stage is around 34 months

·        Stage-2 mesothelioma: The average life expectancy for this stage is 22 months.

·        Stage-3 mesothelioma: The average life survival rate for this stage is 19 months

·        Stage-4 mesothelioma: The average survival rate is 13 months

References




 
Christopher Visser is Founder of Mesothelioma Treatment Community of TreatMesothelioma.org

 

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