There is nothing easy about discovering the existence of cancer in your body. Perhaps nothing can describe the way you might feel as the doctor describes to you the discovery made. What comes next, however, can be devastating. A prognosis is an educated estimate on the outcome of a particular illness. Usually, cancer prognoses are not an exciting adventure.
And so it is with mesothelioma. A particularly nasty type of cancer, mesothelioma affects tissue in the body surrounding important organs. Most commonly, mesothelioma affects the lungs and the tissue surrounding the lungs. Treatment for mesothelioma follows common molds. Most often, patients elect to receive radiation, chemotherapy or in some rarer cases, surgery. Unfortunately, these treatments have only proven effective in extending the life expectancy of the patient and not eliminating the cancer. As of now, there are no known cures for mesothelioma. As a result, prognoses are not very good.
Typically, mesothelioma patients are given somewhere between a few months to a year to live. Those numbers have been known to increase when treatment is received at a specialty care facility. Prognoses are affected by a number of factors. Since there are no current cures for mesothelioma, prognoses are understandably very low. Prognoses, however, can improve with the reception of treatment such as chemotherapy and radiation. Also, if the cancer is discovered early, the prognosis is likely to be better.
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