Malignant Mesothelioma cancer is a type of cancer which occurs in the thin layer of tissue which covers the majority of your internal organs, which are also known as mesothelium. Mesothelioma denotes an aggressive and deadly form of cancer. Mesothelioma treatments are indeed available, yet for many people with mesothelioma, a cure is not possible.
Doctors and specialists of mesothelioma divide mesothelioma into various types based on what part of mesothelium is infected. Mesothelioma most often affects the tissue which surrounds the lungs or pleura. This kind of cancer is called pleural mesothelioma. Other, the rare types of mesothelioma effect tissue in the abdomen, which appears to be peritoneal mesothelioma, around the heart as well as around the testicle. Mesothelioma commonly does not include a form of benign tumor which occurs in the chest and sometimes termed benign mesothelioma or the solitary fibrous tumor.
Clinical trials for Mesothelioma Cancer
If you have been diagnosed with mesothelioma, there are some steps that you can take to improve the prognosis you have and the quality of life, which includes maintaining a healthy overall lifestyle and keeping stress low. For some qualified patients, enrolling in clinical trial can be another way to enhance the prognosis. Considerable resources are being used to enhance mesothelioma treatment, and large part of these resources is widely allocated in clinical trials. Enrolling in mesothelioma clinical trials does not mean that you need to give up the standard treatment. A lot of patients have benefitted from the kinds of experimental treatments studied in these trials, such as immunotherapy and gene therapy.
Mesothelioma Cancer Life Expectancy
Mesothelioma cancer patients have the average life expectancy of less than 2 years, ad even less for people who are diagnosed at the later stage of the cancer. About one in five people diagnosed with mesothelioma lives beyond two years, and fewer than one in 10 lives more than five years. There are some key points about mesothelioma life expectancy.
· The life expectancy of mesothelioma cancer patient is dependent on that individual’s diagnosis, overall health, and age.
· Life expectancy for mesothelioma patients has changed little in the last 20 years.
· Even though mesothelioma cancer patient has rather short life expectancy, better detection methods and evolving treatments are helpful for patients to live much longer.
· The most important factor which affects mesothelioma life expectancy is the stage of cancer during the initial diagnosis. Detecting the cancer prior to the late stage can really improve the length of time a patient has.
Some Other Factors which Impact Life Expectancy
While the stage of disease is the biggest factor, there are in fact a number of other elements that are part of determining the life expectancy of mesothelioma cancer patient. The first one is tumor characteristics, which include the location of tumor, cell type, and whether it has metastasized or not. Where the tumor form can have huge impact on life expectancy. For instance, patients with pleural lungs or peritoneal abdomen tend to have longer prognosis than do those with heart mesothelioma. Also mesothelioma comes in three main cell types-epithelioid, biphasic, and sarcomatoid. Sarcomatoid mesothelioma is much harder to treat, and those that have it tend to have shorter life expectancies than do those who have more common biphasic or epitheloid types.
