MESOTHELIOMA LIFE EXPECTANCY

our life expectancy depends on your diagnosis, and is an estimate your doctor uses to create an effective treatment plan. Learning more about life expectancy will help you take the right steps to improve yours.

The average life expectancy of a mesothelioma patient ranges from 4 to 18 months. Your life expectancy will, however, differ from this average, because doctors base it on your diagnosis—factors like the cell type, cancer stage, and location of the mesothelioma play a role in how the disease will affect you. You can improve your life expectancy by living a healthy lifestyle and getting treatment from an experienced doctor.

Improving Life Expectancy

Living a Healthy Lifestyle

Eating healthy foods and exercising strengthens your immune system, which helps you prevent fatigue and recover faster from treatment; it also gives you energy, raises your strength, and maintains your emotional well-being—simply put, living a healthy lifestyle improves your quality of life. Make the following food groups part of your daily, balanced diet:

• Carbohydrates
• Protein
• Fats
• Water
• Vitamins and Minerals

Learn more about living a healthy lifestyle during treatment with our free informational guide. You’ll find more information about eating healthy, including recipes you can use to plan meals.

Seeking Treatment

An experienced doctor will confirm your diagnosis, and create a treatment plan tailored to your state of health. One of the most important aspects of your diagnosis is the cancer stage of your mesothelioma. If you’re diagnosed early—with stage–one or stag–two mesothelioma—you’ll be eligible for more treatment options, and have a better life expectancy. If you’re diagnosed with advanced–stage mesothelioma, your doctor will use palliative treatments to improve your quality of life. They can also enroll you in aclinical trial, where researchers develop and test new treatments—some of which may lead to a cure in future.

Life-Extending Treatment

Surgery

If you’ve been diagnosed with stage–one or stage–two pleural mesothelioma—and are in good overall health—you may be eligible for curative surgery.

The two most effective surgeries for patients with pleural mesothelioma are the extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP) and the pleurectomy with decortication (P/D). A recent study reported that treatment with the EPP increased the overall survival rate of patients to about 27.5 months. The (P/D)—a less invasive procedure for patients with pleural mesothelioma—has produced results similar to the EPP, extending the survival rate of pleural mesothelioma patients to about 20 months.

Multimodal Therapy

Multimodal therapy is the combination of two or more treatment options, including surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy. Overall, using more than one treatment has improved the life expectancy of patients with mesothelioma in any location, pleuralor peritoneal.

According to a few recent studies, pleural mesothelioma patients who had an EPP combined with chemotherapy and radiation therapy experienced a median survival rate ranging from 13 to 23.9 months. Those who had a multimodal therapy combining P/D with chemotherapy and radiation therapy resulted in an even better survival rate of 30 months.

If you’ve been diagnosed with peritoneal mesothelioma, your doctor may recommend a multimodal therapy called cytoreduction with HIPEC. It’s a combination of surgery—which removes visible tumors from your abdomen—and heated chemotherapy—which kills microscopic cancer cells after the procedure. Over the years, doctors have used cytoreduction with HIPEC to improve the life expectancy of patients with peritoneal mesothelioma to 5 years and beyond.

Emerging Treatments

Emerging treatments are developed and tested in clinical trials by medical researchers, doctors who find better ways to treat patients. If you’ve been diagnosed with stage–three or stage–four mesothelioma, you may not qualify for traditional treatments, like the EPP or a P/D. You may, however, benefit from emerging treatments researchers are testing in clinical trials. Some of these treatments include immunotherapy, gene therapy and photodynamic therapy.

Life Expectancy Factors

A few factors influence life expectancy a great deal; you can limit the influence these factors have on your life expectancy by getting specialized treatment from an experienced doctor.

Cancer Stage

A cancer stage describes how far mesothelioma has spread from where it originated in the protective lining of the lungs, abdomen, or heart. Mesothelioma spreads quickly, but its symptoms don’t appear until 10 to 50 years after the initial exposure to asbestos—the only known cause of the disease—occurred. By the time symptoms become bothersome enough for a patient to see a doctor, the disease may already have spread too far for surgery to effectively remove it.

• Stage 1: The cancer is localized to the lining of the lung.
• Stage 2: The cancer has spread to the lung itself, part of the diaphragm, and nearby lymph nodes.
• Stage 3: The cancer spread throughout one side of the chest, into the chest wall, esophagus and more lymph nodes.
• Stage 4: The cancer has spread into both sides of the chest, affecting other organs, the blood, and bone cells.

If you have a history of exposure to asbestos, see a doctor right away. Mesothelioma diagnosed at an early stage responds better to curative treatment, like surgery or chemotherapy. In fact, the life expectancy of a patient diagnosed with stage–one mesothelioma ranges from 30 to 40 months—over 3 times the average life expectancy of all patients.

Cell Type

The cell type of mesothelioma has an effect on your life expectancy as well. Mesothelioma tumors consist of three different types: epithelioid, sarcomatoid and biphasic, each of which behaves—and responds—differently to treatment. Doctors determine the cell type of a tumor when they diagnose you; identifying the cell type helps them create the most effective course of treatment for your diagnosis.

Epithelioid cells are egg-shaped and stick to each other as they spread. As a result, they spread slowly, making an epithelioid mesothelioma tumor more responsive to treatment. The average life expectancy of a patient with epithelioid mesothelioma cells ranges from 12 to 27 months.

Sarcomatoid cells are spindle-shaped and spread quickly to other parts of the body—their speed makes them less responsive to treatment. The average life expectancy of a patient with sarcomatoid mesothelioma ranges from 7 to 18 months.

A biphasic tumor is made of epithelioid and sarcomatoid cells. The ratio of the two cell types determines the effect a biphasic mesothelioma tumor will have on your life expectancy. More epithelioid cells result in a longer life expectancy, because epithelioid cells spread slowly and respond better to treatment. The average life expectancy of a patient with biphasic mesothelioma ranges from 8 to 21 months.

Mesothelioma Location

The location of mesothelioma also has an effect of your life expectancy. Where the tumor originates—the lining of the lungs, abdomen, or heart—determines which treatment options are available to you.

Pleural Mesothelioma

Pleural mesothelioma originates in the lining of the lungs, the pleura. The average life expectancy for most patients with mesothelioma in this location ranges from 4 to 18 months. More life-extending treatment options are available for you if you’re diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma, because doctors have more experience treating it; this type of mesothelioma accounts for 75 percent of all diagnosed cases.

Peritoneal Mesothelioma

Peritoneal mesothelioma originates in the lining of the lungs, the peritoneum. The average life expectancy for patients diagnosed with peritoneal mesothelioma is 12 months, though several studies have shown that having cytoreduction with HIPEC has extended the life expectancy of some patients to 5 years and beyond.

Pericardial Mesothelioma

Pericardial mesothelioma originates in the protective lining of the heart, the pericardium. It’s rare, accounting for about 1 percent of all diagnoses. The life expectancy for patients with pericardial mesothelioma is 6 months; as more cases appear, however, doctors will gain more experience treating it, and will create better treatments.

Getting Help with Treatment

No matter your diagnosis—the cancer stage, cell type, and location of the mesothelioma—getting specialized treatment from an experienced doctor will help you improve your prognosis and quality of life. If you’d like to know more about how mesothelioma affects your life expectancy—and what you can do to improve yours—speak to a member of our Patient Help Team. We’re here to answer your questions, and can even help connect you to an experienced mesothelioma doctor. Request a call from a team member today, or get a free copy of our mesothelioma help guide.