The prognosis is usually first determined by whether or not the patient's tumor is resectable (able to be removed by surgery) or unresectable.Generally, most stage I and some stage II and III cancers are resectable, but there are some exceptions. The subtype of the tumor, the size, location and whether or not the patient is healthy enough for surgery also affect the resectability of the tumor. In addition to having their tumors removed, patients usually will receive chemotherapy or radiation treatments to further combat the cancer.
In order to determine whether a patient has a good prognosis, there are factors involved, such as:
- The ability of the patient to perform normal everyday tasks
- Younger age
- Epithelioid subtype
- Not having chest pain
- No significant weight loss
- Normal levels of LDH in the blood
- Normal red and white blood cell counts and blood platelet counts
If mesothelioma is discovered early on, there is a higher chance of the patient surviving longer. The average amount of time that patients diagnosed with mesothelioma live for is 4-18 months. However, 10% of diagnosed people live at least 5 years with the disease.
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