Mesothelioma Survival Rate

What Is a Survival Rate?

Survival rate is the percentage of patients who reach a specific survival benchmark with a deadly disease. It’s usually measured in increments of every six months or one year. For mesothelioma, doctors usually give a 1-year survival rate, 2-year survival rate, 3-year survival rate and 5-year survival rate.

The measurement begins either once the patient is diagnosed or after a specific treatment. It ends when the patient passes away. Doctors then calculate the survival rate based on many cases.

The survival rate is based on past cases. Therefore, it’s not a prediction of survival for a current or future case. It’s a benchmark for doctors and patients to make decisions regarding treatment or what to expect with life expectancy.

Survival rate can be broken down into age groups, gender, type, treatment and more. This gives a mesothelioma prognosis for each person diagnosed with the cancer.

What Is the Survival Rate for Pleural Mesothelioma?

The 1-year survival rate for pleural mesothelioma is around 50%. The 2-year survival rate is approximately 18%. The 5-year survival rate for pleural mesothelioma is 12%, according to the American Cancer Society.

What Is the Survival Rate for Peritoneal Mesothelioma?

The survival rates for peritoneal mesothelioma are higher than they are for pleural mesothelioma. For instance, the 2-year rate is 35%.

The survival rates increase dramatically after successful surgery. It improves incrementally for other therapies, such as chemotherapy and immunotherapy.

Why Survival Rates Don’t Tell the Whole Story

Survival rates don’t tell the whole story. It can be discouraging to learn about the survival rates when you or a loved one has mesothelioma cancer, these rates should not cause you to lose hope.

There are a few ways that mesothelioma survival rates can be misleading. Here are three reasons not to put too much stock in the reported mesothelioma survival rates; survival rates continue to improve, new treatment options becoming available, and the context is misleading.

Survival Data Continues to Improve

Survival rates don’t always reflect current data. Survival rates are based on historical data. Doctors examine the results of people treated in the past in order to provide this data. They only offer a glimpse into the past, not the future.

New Treatment Options

Survival rates do not account for new mesothelioma treatment options, like immunotherapy or cell and gene therapy, or advances in techniques for existing treatments, such as surgery. Many of these treatments were not available at the time the data was collected.

Treatment options for cancers like mesothelioma have been developing quickly through clinical trials in the past decade. For instance, immunotherapy outperforms chemotherapy in survival by four months. The 1-year and 2-year rates are also better for immunotherapy.

Context Is Missing

General survival averages can be misleading because they include patients who didn’t receive treatment. They also include patients with poor health, in their 70s or 80s in age, treated by general oncologists rather than mesothelioma specialists, and other inhibiting factors.

For example, patients who are diagnosed before the age of 65 live an average of three months longer than those diagnosed between the ages of 65 and 74.

Patients and families should remember that all statistics have a degree of error. Your chances of survival improve when you are in better health, go to a mesothelioma specialist at a top cancer center, and receive recommended treatment like surgery or immunotherapy.

Factors Affecting Mesothelioma Survival Rates

Some of the factors that can affect mesothelioma survival rates are: patient health and age; gender; stage; cell type; and treatment options. Below is more information on each.

Patient Health and Age

Patient health and age can affect mesothelioma survival rates. People who are older have poorer survival rates than younger patients. People with better overall health also live longer.

Treatment options for mesothelioma are more available for people in good health. For instance, patients are more likely to recover from surgery if they have a healthy lifestyle, and surgery is the best treatment option to improve mesothelioma life expectancy.

Gender

The mesothelioma survival rates are different for men and women. According to the results of one study, women have a 5-year survival rate of 13%. Men have a 5-year survival rate of below 5%.

Stage of Mesothelioma

Survival rates change for each of the four stages of mesothelioma. Here are estimated survival rates for the four stages of mesothelioma:

• Stage 1 is close to a 50% 2-year survival rate.
• Stage 2 has a 2-year survival rate of 35%-40%.
• Stage 3 has a 2-year survival rate of around 25%.
• Stage 4 has a 2-year survival rate under 20%.

Stage combined with a patient’s age can have a compound effect on mesothelioma survival rates. People with mesothelioma age 65 or older have five times better survival rates at stage 1 than at stage 4.

Mesothelioma Cell Type

Mesothelioma cell type can significantly affect the survival rates. Any case of mesothelioma is diagnosed as one of three cell types: epithelioid, sarcomatoid or biphasic. Here is a snapshot of survival rates for the mesothelioma cell types:

• Epithelioid mesothelioma has a 1-year survival rate over 50% and a 3-year survival rate just under 50%.
• Sarcomatoid mesothelioma has a 1-year survival rate well below 50%. The 3-year survival rate is reportedly close to 0%.
• Biphasic mesothelioma is a combination of epithelioid and sarcomatoid cells. Survival statistics for biphasic cell types are not consistent. The ratio of epithelioid cells to sarcomatoid cells can affect survival. Patients with a higher percentage of epithelioid cells have a better overall outcome.

Treatments: Surgery & Immunotherapy

Surgery

Mesothelioma survival can be greatly improved when patients have surgery. This is because surgery for mesothelioma removes most of the visible tumors, decreasing the disease volume.

By decreasing the amount of cancer cells and tumors means the body has less to fight and the fewer chances of metastasis. This may not cure the disease, but it may grant the patient more time before the disease starts to grow and spread.

According to studies, these three mesothelioma surgeries have greatly increased survival rates:

• Extrapleural pneumonectomy (pleural mesothelioma) – Led to a 2-year survival rate of 32-41% and a 5-year survival rate of 14%
• Pleurectomy/decortication (pleural mesothelioma) – Caused a 2-year survival rate of 59% and 5-year survival rate of 20-25%
• Cytoreductive surgery with HIPEC (peritoneal mesothelioma) – Wake Forest Baptist Cancer Center reported a 5-year survival rate of 30%

A recent study found that people with the epithelioid mesothelioma cell type had an average survival of 25 months after surgery.

Immunotherapy

Immunotherapy has proven to help improve the survival rates for mesothelioma patients. Opdivo and Yervoy, two FDA-approved immunotherapy drugs for pleural mesothelioma, are given as a combination drug therapy. The 2-year survival rate is around 40% and a 3-year survival rate of 23%.

Keytruda, another FDA-approved immunotherapy for pleural mesothelioma, also improves life expectancy. In one study testing immunotherapy versus chemotherapy, the 1-year survival rate for immunotherapy patients was 76%.

Beating the Odds: Improve Your Mesothelioma Survival

Survival rates give patients an approximation of how long people with a similar diagnosis have lived. They are based on a range of factors from tumor location to the patient’s age. These statistics may give patients a clearer picture of their diagnosis so they can develop a treatment plan best suited for them.

“I knew I was a fighter and could handle whatever happened,” said mesothelioma survivor Jodi Page

Due to the many factors that can impact a patient’s survival, it is important to take survival statistics lightly and to not be discouraged. Mesothelioma is an aggressive cancer but is also very unpredictable, many patients living beyond their original prognosis.

Survival rates are only a guideline. Learn more about beating the odds in our free Mesothelioma Guide book, which also comes with other free resources to inspire you to win the fight against mesothelioma cancer.