Mesothelioma is a kind of cancer caused due to excessive exposure to asbestos. Its prognosis is dependent on the stage of the disease and the age of the patient. Apart from this, there is also the factor of health condition of the patient and the kind of mesothelioma.
Mesothelioma Prognosis
The prognosis and the life expectancy of the patient are dependent mainly on the stage of mesothelioma when it is diagnosed. But with mesothelioma, unlike some other cancers, it is difficult to determine the developmental stage when the cancer is diagnosed. This is because the disease is quite rare and the initial symptoms are not easily diagnosable. As this deadly disease is diagnosed only at the advanced stage, the survival rate is not very high. The history of mesothelioma statistics indicate that 10% of the cases diagnosed for about 3 years and about 5% will live for about 5 years. Still, if the disease is diagnosed early such as stage one and is treated effectively, then 50% will survive 2 years and 20% people will survive 5 years.
Mesothelioma Stage One
Stage one mesothelioma indicates that the cancer is localized and has not spread to other parts of the body. It is found only in one area of the body like in the case of pleural mesothelioma, it is only in one part of the lung. There are different methods to identify the stage of mesothelioma for its prognosis:
Mesothelioma Stage One – Butchart Staging System
This method is considered to be oldest system to discover the degree of development for pleural mesothelioma. The staging is done based on the size of the primary tumor. In Stage One, only one of the sides of the lung has cancer which indicates that one part of the pleural membrane is affected by cancer. It could be also one side of the diaphragm and one lung.
Mesothelioma Stage One – The TNM Staging System
This is a recent kind of staging system which stage the cancer depending on the size of a tumor, presence of cancer in the lymph nodes and its spreading to other parts of the body. When using the TNM method, stage one mesothelioma is found in the left or right pleura and has spread to either the lung, the pericardium or the diaphragm on the same side of the chest. In TNM stage one mesothelioma, the cancer is not found in lymph nodes and has not metastasized to other body parts.
When the Brigham System is used to stage malignant mesothelioma, the doctors generally focus and grade the stage of the cancer based on the successful removal of the primary tumor with surgery. So, with this approach and method the stage one mesothelioma patient has a better prognosis, because the other stages may not follow this stage indicating that the cancer has not spread to other parts of the body and has been restricted to only one part of the body. This method also provides for better treatment options.
However, it is quite difficult to diagnose this disease at stage one use both methods because the symptoms of mesothelioma are not clearly identifiable like they are in Stages Two, Three or Four. In Stage One, the patient can be treated by undergoing a surgery to remove the primary tumor and the nearing tissue followed by radiation therapy or chemotherapy to kill any remaining cancer cells.
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