{"id":2002,"date":"2018-07-12T22:01:09","date_gmt":"2018-07-12T22:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mesotheliomacommunity.com\/?p=716"},"modified":"2018-07-12T22:01:09","modified_gmt":"2018-07-12T22:01:09","slug":"mesothelioma-survival-rates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/imedicalsociety.org\/mesothelioma-survival-rates\/","title":{"rendered":"Mesothelioma Survival Rates"},"content":{"rendered":"
About half of those diagnosed with mesothelioma may expect to live (Source<\/a>) more than two years if diagnosed early enough, while for a 10-16 percent, the mesothelioma survival rates are that patients may live for five years or more (Source<\/a>). If a person is diagnosed in the more advanced stage, the prognosis is worse, and only about 17-30% of the patients may live longer than two years (Source<\/a>), and about 7-8 percent may still expect to live longer than five years depending on the treatment and other factors (Source<\/a>). Those are the updated mesothelioma survival rates using the United States as a parameter.<\/p>\n There are very long survivors too. A small number of patients may continue to live longer than 15 years after the initial diagnosis. Prognosis depends on various factors like age, gender, location of cancer, type of mutation, individual characteristics of the patient, and so on. Thus hope is always there, and one must never give up on treatment. In some cases, mesothelioma survival rates are affected by experimental drugs or alternative therapy may also help. However, there is no evidence that we could found to support this last statement.<\/p>\n Although the majority of those diagnosed with mesothelioma may not live for more than two years, nevertheless, many may expect to survive longer than five years.<\/p>\n And then there are reported cases when a person continued to live even after 10-15 years of initial diagnosis \u2013 the so-called long-term survivors. Further, there are gender differences, and the survival rate in women is much higher, usually three times greater.<\/p>\n All cancer cases are different, even in the same type of cancer there are many differences (especially regarding the nature of mutation) which along with individual factors like genetics, the specificity of the immune system, environment, individual\u2019s psychological approach towards the disease decides the survival rate<\/a>.<\/p>\n So why cancer is such a fatal disease? <\/em>Cancer is a condition in which one or other body tissues starts growing uncontrollably, and they grow quite fast. This uncontrolled growth damages the surrounding and even far away organs, which ultimately leads to death.<\/p>\n Mutated cancer cells are different in a way that they may also migrate to different parts of the body, and not only survive there, but may even thrive there \u2013 something that does not happen with healthy cells. Thus cells of the outer lining of lungs (called the mesothelium) would never migrate or grow inside the liver, but malignant (cancerous\/mutated) mesothelium cells may migrate to the liver and propagate there, thus disrupting its function.<\/p>\n Mesothelioma is the disease of the outer covering\/lining of internal organs, like the outer covering of the lungs, liver, intestines, urinary bladder, testicles, and so on. When cancer occurs in the thin outer lining of internal organs, it becomes thick and big and thus causing pressure<\/a> on the nearby organs. Worst, some of the mutated cells break away from the place and travel to other parts of the body and get seeded there. Once cancer has spread too far, it becomes challenging to treat.<\/p>\n One of the reasons that mesothelioma survival rates are so short survival, is that it remains almost symptomless in the initial stages when cancer has just begun growing, and it is localized. Symptoms only start occurring when the tumor is big and starts disrupting the working of nearby organs, and at that time it has generally spread to other organs too \u2013 it is called metastasis. Thus survival rate depends on how widespread is cancer, something described in the staging of cancer (including mesothelioma).<\/p>\n Staging is mesothelioma, or in fact, any cancer is significant and is the first thing that a specialist would do after the diagnosis, as both the prognosis and choice of treatment<\/a> depend on it.<\/p>\n Thus in stage one prediction is good and the doctor may think about the surgical removal of the tumor, while in stage 4 surgical procedure may have no value and mesothelioma may be treated<\/a> with chemotherapy and other drugs.<\/p>\n In staging, the doctor would consider the size of the tumor, whether it has spread to lymph nodes and if it has migrated to other parts of the body.<\/p>\n the two most commonly used systems to classify mesothelioma are the TNM system and the number system.<\/p>\n The TNM system is more informative while the number system is easier to understand. In the TNM system, T (1 to 4) stands for tumor size, N (0 to 3) for nodes (lymph nodes), and M (0 or 1) for metastasis (a spread of cancer to other parts). Thus T2N1M0 means that the tumor is quite large and it has spread to nearby lymph nodes, but it has not spread to other organs.<\/p>\n However, for ease of understanding doctors would generally tell the patient in which stage mesotheliomas is, that is a 1-4 stage. Stage 1 means that tumor is small, stage 2 says it is bit bigger and can be seen in nearby lymph nodes, stage 3 means that it is big and has spread to regional lymph nodes, while stage 4 says that mesothelioma is big and it has spread not only to regional lymph nodes but also to other parts of the body.<\/p>\n Although it is extremely rare to catch cancer in its earliest stages, nonetheless, it may happen sometimes. Most initial stage of cancer is called carcinoma<\/a> in situ<\/em>, it means that cancer has still not occurred, but doctors can see specific changes that show that a person may develop cancer if not treated. It is sometimes called stage 0.<\/p>\nMesothelioma Survival Rates And The Different Stages Of Mesothelioma<\/strong><\/h2>\n