Mesothelioma Life Expectancy
Life expectancy for a mesothelioma patient depends on a variety of factors, including the extent of the cancer at the time a person is diagnosed. The mesothelioma survival rate typically ranges from 4 to 18 months. (1)
Life after a Mesothelioma Diagnosis
How long do I have to live? It’s a question that often follows the devastating news of a mesothelioma diagnosis.
Mesothelioma is an aggressive asbestos-related cancer that forms in the protective lining of the chest, the abdomen, the heart, or the testicles. It usually takes 20 to 50 years after a person’s first exposure to asbestos for mesothelioma to develop, but once diagnosed, the disease can kill in a matter of months. (2)
Unfortunately, most patients are diagnosed only after the cancer has progressed because the symptoms of mesothelioma mirror other, more common illnesses, making the cancer hard to detect. Depending on a patient’s specific circumstances, some surgical options may be possible. (3) (4)
Mesothelioma Survival Rate
Although there is no cure for mesothelioma, the survival rate is rising as researchers learn more about the deadly disease. More mesothelioma patients than ever before are living for at least one year after diagnosis, and some patients have even survived for five and 10 years.(5) Still, the current five-year survival rate for mesothelioma is only 10 percent.(1)
Some factors linked to longer survival times include:
- Good overall health.
- Younger age.
- Female gender.
- Epithelioid subtype.
- Lack of chest pain.
- No significant weight loss.
- Normal levels of a substance in the blood called LDH.
- Normal red blood cell counts, white blood cell counts, and blood platelet counts. (6)
Mesothelioma Stages & Life Expectancy
The stage of the mesothelioma cancer, or how far it has progressed at the time of diagnosis, affects life expectancy. The earlier a doctor catches the cancer, the better the prognosis and expected survival rate.(1)
Staging can affect the treatment options available to a patient. Stage I means the cancer is localized, while stage IV, the most advanced stage of mesothelioma, means the cancer has spread and surgery is no longer a viable option.(7) People with mesotheliomas that can be operated on are likely to live longer than those with cancer that has spread too far to be surgically removed.(8) Unfortunately, most patients are not diagnosed until stages III or IV because symptoms can remain unnoticeable for some time.
The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database provides cancer survival statistics. The American Cancer Society relies on this database of info for this survival information: (9)
Mesothelioma Location & Life Expectancy
Mesothelioma is classified by where it starts in the body, and the location of the tumors may affect life expectancy. Patients with pleural mesothelioma, which occurs in the lining of the lungs, make up 75 percent of all mesothelioma cases and have the best rate of survival. Tumors that form in the lining of the abdomen are called peritoneal mesotheliomas and are the second most common type of the disease. The overall prognosis of peritoneal mesothelioma is worse than pleural mesothelioma with typical survival up to one year. (1) (10)
Mesothelioma is typically divided into three cell-type categories, depending on the tissue involved. These cell types include epithelial, sarcomatoid, and biphasic.
- Epithelial mesothelioma is the most common type, accounting for 50-70 percent of all cases. It has the best survival rate.
- Sarcomatoid mesothelioma is the least common but most aggressive of the cell types. It is associated with a particularly poor prognosis.
- Biphasic mesothelioma is known as mixed type because it’s a combination of epitheliod and sarcomatoid cell types. (15)
A literature review, published in 2022, noted that epitheliod type mesothelioma “offers the best prognosis, followed by non-epithelioid and sarcomatoid.” (13) (1) In a 2001 study of 1,605 cases, German researchers noted a survival time of 16.9 months for epithelioid malignant mesotheliomas, compared with 13.1 months for biphasic tumors, and 5.5 months for the sarcomatoid tumors. (11)
