Based on Your Reading:
Get Your Free Mesothelioma Guide
Find a Top Mesothelioma Doctor
Access Help Paying for Treatment
Mesothelioma prognosis is typically poor, with patients surviving 12 to 21 months with treatment. Some mesothelioma survivors have lived for more than 10 years. Some patients can improve their mesothelioma prognosis with treatment and improving their overall health.
Written by Dr. Daniel Landau • Edited By Walter Pacheco • Medically Reviewed By Dr. Jacques Fontaine
The Mesothelioma Center at Asbestos.com has provided patients and their loved ones the most updated and reliable information on mesothelioma and asbestos exposure since 2006.
Our team of Patient Advocates includes a medical doctor, a registered nurse, health services administrators, veterans, VA-accredited Claims Agents, an oncology patient navigator and hospice care expert. Their combined expertise means we help any mesothelioma patient or loved one through every step of their cancer journey.
More than 30 contributors, including mesothelioma doctors, survivors, health care professionals and other experts, have peer-reviewed our website and written unique research-driven articles to ensure you get the highest-quality medical and health information.
My family has only the highest compliment for the assistance and support that we received from The Mesothelioma Center. This is a staff of compassionate and knowledgeable individuals who respect what your family is experiencing and who go the extra mile to make an unfortunate diagnosis less stressful. Information and assistance were provided by The Mesothelioma Center at no cost to our family.LashawnMesothelioma patient’s daughter
Landau, D. A. (2024, April 18). Mesothelioma Prognosis. Asbestos.com. Retrieved April 19, 2024, from https://www.asbestos.com/mesothelioma/prognosis/
Landau, Daniel A. "Mesothelioma Prognosis." Asbestos.com, 18 Apr 2024, https://www.asbestos.com/mesothelioma/prognosis/.
Landau, Daniel A. "Mesothelioma Prognosis." Asbestos.com. Last modified April 18, 2024. https://www.asbestos.com/mesothelioma/prognosis/.
The prognosis for mesothelioma, or the likely course of the disease, is generally unfavorable. However, while most patients live between 12 and 21 months with treatment, patients have defied the odds and lived more than 10 years. A mesothelioma prognosis is both individual and based on the outcomes of other patients.
Survival rate, life expectancy and mortality statistics play a role in prognosis, but every mesothelioma survivor is unique. According to the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results Program’s latest available data as of 2019 for patients across all demographics and mesothelioma types, the 5-year relative survival rate is nearly 14%.
Factors affecting a malignant mesothelioma prognosis include the stage of the disease, the patient’s overall health and the type of mesothelioma treatments received. Doctors will likely talk to their patients about other factors that are related to their mesothelioma prognosis.
Ongoing cancer treatment can help keep cancer under control. Some patients live more than a decade after therapy.
Get Your Free Mesothelioma Guide
Find a Top Mesothelioma Doctor
Access Help Paying for Treatment
The most important factors that can affect a patient’s mesothelioma prognosis are the origin site or where tumors began developing, the cell type of the mesothelioma tumors and the cancer stage when diagnosing mesothelioma. General health and other personal factors also play a role in the response to treatment.
The location and size of tumors affects the kinds of treatments a patient qualifies for. The cancer stage impacts prognosis because treatment becomes less effective in later stages.
In general, patients don’t have much control over most of these prognostic factors. You can’t control your age or tumor cell type, but you can improve your overall health and undergo cancer treatment to positively influence your prognosis.
“The major or No. 1 factor that influences a patients’ prognosis is the amount of tumor that is visible at the time of diagnosis,” Dr. David Sugarbaker, who was a pioneer in mesothelioma treatment, had explained to The Mesothelioma Center. “Tumor volume has been shown in several studies to determine more strongly than any other type of test to determine what the long-term survival is.”
Dr. Sugarbaker had also explained: “There are other ways to do it to determine prognosis. All of which are valid. But putting that information together with how much tumor is present at the time of diagnosis gives us a better and better overall vision, if you will, of how the patient’s going to do with treatment.”
You can choose to be proactive and take steps to improve your prognosis. Although you can’t change your age or cancer stage, you can choose to seek treatment and make healthy lifestyle choices.
Long-term survivors often undergo procedures like surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, immunotherapy and Tumor Treating Fields. Surgery allows some patients to live for years, but only 20% of patients qualify for it. About 50% of the patients who undergo chemotherapy see tumor shrinkage. Adding targeted therapy or Tumor Treating Fields may improve life span from 12 to 18 months.
Patients can also use relaxation techniques. These can include guided imagery and progressive muscle relaxation, which may help patients better cope with their diagnosis.
I would tell anyone who gets diagnosed with this disease, don’t just take the first advice you get and give up. Look around and see what is out there.
Although recurrence is common, people diagnosed with mesothelioma are overcoming their initial prognoses. Some survivors live years or even a decade or more past their initial malignant mesothelioma prognosis. They often credit aggressive cancer treatment for improving their prognosis.
Related Videos:
Remission is having no signs or symptoms of active cancer. Partial remission is a 50% reduction in tumor size and full remission is complete tumor disappearance.
Complete remission is rare with mesothelioma. Partial remission is more common. Patients may live for years in partial remission.
Mesothelioma survivors share stories of how they improved their prognosis through their medical teams, family support, treatment procedures and other factors.
Diagnosed in 2005, Chris Gibney far surpassed his pleural mesothelioma diagnosis. In March 2017, he and his wife welcomed a group of exchange students from Germany to their home. Gibney credits his excellent medical team and a family support group for surviving more than a decade past his prognosis.
At the time of Beth Mixon’s peritoneal mesothelioma diagnosis in 2000, the majority of patients lived less than two years after treatment. Despite a grim prognosis, Mixon is still going strong 17 years after an aggressive cytoreductive surgery.
Diagnosed with peritoneal mesothelioma in 2010, Kasie Coleman underwent several cycles of chemotherapy and HIPEC treatments. Her cancer went into remission in 2012.
The prognosis for malignant mesothelioma is poor. However, emerging treatments and mesothelioma awareness are improving a mesothelioma patient’s prognosis.
While mesothelioma is considered terminal, it’s not always fatal. Patients have outlived their prognosis by more than a decade.
Most people with mesothelioma live between 4 and 18 months, but some people have lived longer than 10 years with this type of cancer.
It’s not possible to cure mesothelioma, but doctors use treatments to control tumor growth and cancer symptoms.
Mesothelioma specialists have spent years learning about mesothelioma treatment, and they know how to treat this cancer better than general oncologists. Working with a specialist is the best way to improve your prognosis.
Have a question? Contact one of our Patient Advocates and get the answers you need.
Connect, share stories and learn from the experiences of others coping with mesothelioma in one of our support groups.
We help support charities, hospitals and awareness groups working to help people impacted by asbestos and cancer.
Your web browser is no longer supported by Microsoft. Update your browser for more security, speed and compatibility.
If you are looking for mesothelioma support, please contact our Patient Advocates at (855) 404-4592