The term “life expectancy” refers to the average time a person is expected to live. After someone is diagnosed with mesothelioma, their life expectancy may be cut short because of the effects of the disease and unfortunately, sometimes its treatments.
The current overall life expectancy in the U.S. is 78 years. The American Cancer Society shows the average age of a pleural mesothelioma patient at the time they are diagnosed is 69.
Because most patients in the past have survived less than 12 months according to research data, a mesothelioma diagnosis means an average drop in life expectancy of about eight years.
However, statistics do not decide your destiny. Increasingly, people with asbestos-related cancer are measuring their survival in years rather than months. Improved therapies and emerging drug combinations offer newly diagnosed patients a reason to hope.
Looking at average life expectancies and survival rates is useful for medical researchers, but what you and your medical team must focus on are the unique circumstances of your life, as well as your own determination to be a cancer survivor.
Experts say generalized life expectancy predictions are almost impossible to make because each case is unique, but the news is slowly getting better.
Factors Affecting Mesothelioma Life Expectancy
Your life expectancy is affected by factors unique to your cancer and your health. The primary factors include:
- The cancer’s stage, location and cell type
- Your sex, age, overall health, lifestyle and blood characteristics
- The treatments and clinical trials you try
Stage
| Mesothelioma Life Expectancy by Stage |
| Stage 1 |
21 months |
| Stage 2 |
19 months |
| Stage 3 |
16 months |
| Stage 4 |
12 months |
Staging plays an important role in determining a mesothelioma patient’s life expectancy. Staging refers to how far the cancer has progressed at the time of the diagnosis. The exact stage of the cancer is the greatest predictor of life expectancy.
As the mesothelioma stage increases, life expectancy decreases. The later stages are often characterized by mesothelioma cells spreading to lymph nodes and throughout the chest. Sometimes the cancer spreads to other parts of the body, but this is relatively rare.
Tumor Location
Different types of mesothelioma originate in different locations. Tumors that initially form in the lung lining are called pleural mesotheliomas. Patients with the pleural type live around eight months if left untreated. Tumors that form in the abdominal lining are called peritoneal mesotheliomas. Patients with the peritoneal type live around six months if left untreated.
Patients with peritoneal mesothelioma typically have a longer life expectancy.
Peritoneal mesothelioma is currently easier to treat than pleural mesothelioma. Electing treatment increases the life expectancy of peritoneal patients more than pleural patients. Half of people with peritoneal mesothelioma who undergo surgery with heated chemotherapy live longer than five years.
The rarest types of mesothelioma affect the heart (pericardial mesothelioma) and testicles (testicular mesothelioma). Median survival for pericardial mesothelioma is around six to 10 months. People with testicular mesothelioma usually live at least two years on average.
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Cell Type
Certain types of cells that make up a mesothelioma tumor respond better to treatment than others. Tumors mostly composed of epithelial cells respond best to treatment. Patients with this cell type have a better life expectancy. In contrast, tumors made up primarily of the sarcomatoid cell type or the biphasic (mixed) cell type are more difficult to treat, and they are associated with a shorter life expectancy.
Your Body
Age
Younger patients with mesothelioma typically have more treatment options than older patients. That’s because as we age, our bodies lose the ability to recover from aggressive therapies and procedures. We are also more likely to develop other health conditions that could leave certain types of treatment out of reach. The average age of patients diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma is 69.
43 percent of patients younger than 45 survive 5 years after diagnosis, compared to just 5.7 percent of patients age 65 or older.
Gender
Studies show women with epithelial mesothelioma tend to live longer than male patients do. Research reported to the National Cancer Institute from 2005 to 2011 reveal that, overall, 15.6 percent of women with mesothelioma survive for five years, compared with 8.8 percent of men. Researchers are not yet sure why women have better life expectancies.
15.6 percent of women with mesothelioma survive for five years, compared with 8.8 percent of men.
Blood Biomarkers
Some biomarkers found in the blood, such as COX-2, antigen p27, MIB-1, VEGF and glycoprotein 90K, appear to have an impact on life expectancy. Your doctor can explain your blood test results and how they may affect your prognosis.
Thrombocytosis (high blood platelet count) and leukocytosis (high white blood cell count) prior to surgery are associated with shorter life expectancy.
Living Longer With a Mesothelioma Diagnosis
Today, patients are living longer than before. Some people survive three, five and even 10 years beyond their original prognosis, providing inspirational comeback stories for other potential survivors. Although the disease can change you forever, many survivors continue to lead active lives, traveling and doing activities with grandkids and other loved ones.
Registered nurse Karen Selby encourages mesothelioma patients to think beyond the statistics.
Patients often ask, “Is mesothelioma curable?” While there is no cure for mesothelioma, some people have achieved remission— meaning all evidence of the disease is gone at least temporarily — and lived for years with few symptoms.
Some of the steps people take to live longer with mesothelioma include:
- Seeking a second opinion from a mesothelioma specialist
- Electing treatment options such as surgery and chemotherapy
- Participating in a clinical trial for access to experimental treatments
- Working with a palliative care doctor to maintain quality of life
- Improving diet and exercise to boost overall health
- Adjusting lifestyle habits to improve well-being
- Trying complementary therapies to boost immunity
Treatment
Certain things are within your control. You can team up with mesothelioma experts to get the best available treatment. You can improve your health and lifestyle to boost your immune system and cope better with stress. You can also reach out to family, friends or a cancer survivor group for support.
Research shows anti-cancer treatment will help you live longer than electing no treatment. For example, stage 4 life expectancy is around a year with treatment versus seven months without treatment.
“When I was originally diagnosed, they gave me a year and a half to live. That was 10 years ago.”
— Virginia Beach, pleural mesothelioma survivor diagnosed in 2005
Early-Stage Treatment
Patients with stage 1 or 2 cancer may qualify for multimodal therapy — a combination of aggressive surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy — which has the most positive impact on mesothelioma life expectancy. Some stage 3 patients qualify, too, if they are in good health, are relatively young and have an epithelial or biphasic cell type.
Late-Stage Treatment
Some people with stage 3 or 4 mesothelioma have lived for years because they used a variety of therapies to keep the cancer in control. While surgery usually is not an option once the cancer has progressed this far, clinical trials are offering immunotherapy and potentially improved forms of chemotherapy and radiation therapy to people with late-stage mesothelioma.
Clinical Trials & Emerging Treatments
There is a chance that your best opportunity for extending your life expectancy could come from experimental treatment in a clinical trial. Mesothelioma researchers constantly test new medications and treatment approaches, and clinical trials allow patients to take advantage of new treatments that may extend mesothelioma survival. Unfortunately, new treatments may also come with a higher element of risk.
Researchers are investigating several experimental therapies that slow the progress of mesothelioma. Immunotherapy and photodynamic therapy show promise in extending life expectancy. Other new targeted treatments, such as gene therapy, may soon prove effective in killing cancer cells and extending life expectancy.
Health & Lifestyle
Overall Health
Dr. Tirrell Johnson talks about the average life expectancy of mesothelioma patients.
“Performance status” is a technical term that refers to the activity level and general fitness of a patient. Nearly all studies that examine performance status in mesothelioma patients show a significant effect on survival. The more active and fit you are, the more likely your body will be able to withstand and recover from aggressive cancer treatments.
Lifestyle Changes to Enhance Well-Being
Many long-term survivors seem to have a unifying link: They make major life changes to improve their health and well-being. Some take better care of their bodies through nutrition and exercise, while others strengthen their spirituality or find other ways to foster peace of mind.
A number of mesothelioma patients have survived for years because of lifestyle changes that had positive impacts on treatment side effects, stress levels and their bodies’ natural ability to heal.
Alternative Therapies and Integrative Oncology
Studies show that mesothelioma patients have benefitted from combining traditional cancer treatment with complementary therapies such as acupuncture, meditation, massage and yoga. These therapies may reduce stress and pain and improve quality of life.
Life Expectancy Research
“I’m staying optimistic, and praying now more than I ever have before. Even though there are obstacles and difficult times, you can get past them. You can still live a reasonably normal life again.”
— Ellis Gill, pleural mesothelioma survivor diagnosed in 2014
As results from ongoing mesothelioma studies surface, doctors learn more about the disease. New data leads to more accurate mesothelioma prognoses.
Studies that involve surgery tend to report higher mesothelioma survival rates. The better outcomes in these studies are attributed to the early diagnosis of the participants and the fact that surgery offers the best chance of long-term survival.
In a 2011 review of 314 pleural mesothelioma patients, for example, Japanese researchers found that surgical treatment more than doubled the median survival period from less than 10 months to almost two years.
A surgical procedure called pleurectomy/decortication (P/D) was associated with improved survival in a 2012 study. European researchers found epithelioid pleural mesothelioma patients who had a P/D lived an average of 30 months, while patients who received the other major surgical option, an extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP), lived an average of 14 months.
Three years later in 2015, an Italian study of 468 pleural mesothelioma patients who had an EPP found that nearly 23 percent of the participants lived longer than three years. Age, epithelioid cell type and cancer-free lymph nodes were prognostic factors associated with long-term survival.
Mesothelioma researchers are working diligently to improve the life expectancy for mesothelioma patients. Clinical trials are testing new drugs and new combinations of therapies to find a more effective treatment protocol. The landscape of mesothelioma treatment is constantly evolving, and treatment is becoming increasingly personalized.
People are living longer with this disease than ever before, and with sustained research, mesothelioma life expectancy will continually improve.
