Mesothelioma Survival Rate: Getting This Diagnosis Is Not An Automatic Death Sentence

The mesothelioma survival rate for victims is not good. The main reason for this is that it usually goes undetected until the later years of life, even if the asbestos exposure took place in a person's youth. The earliest symptoms are so common... coughing, fatigue, occasional fever... and come and go, making it easy to assume that you have a cold, the flu, bronchitis, and so forth. By the time it becomes chronic and debilitating enough to diagnose, it is usually to late to do more than make the patient comfortable, or give them a few more months.

Researchers are spending most of their time trying to come up with dependable tests to help diagnose the condition earlier, which would give chemo, radiation, and surgery a better chance of succeeding. Tests like the Mesomark blood test seem to be very promising new treatments that should increase the mesothelioma survival rate.

While The Usual Prognosis Is Less Than a Year, Some Patients Do Survive Longer.

A very small number have even achieved a five year remission or longer, though it is always expected that the cancer will return. The professionals cannot really explain why some people are able to fight this dreadful cancer. They do seem to have all gone through some sort of immune system therapy, either through clinical trials or by trying alternative treatments dealing with the immune system. Therefore, researchers are concentrating their efforts on both early detection, and also strengthening the immune system in an attempt to improve the survival rate for mesothelioma patients.

Paul Kraus Is Still Alive 13 Years After Being Diagnosed With Malignant Peritoneal Mesothelioma

You never know what the universe has in store for you. You might want to read about Paul Kraus, an Australian who was diagnosed with malignant peritoneal mesothelioma in 1997, thirty-five years after he was exposed to asbestos while working in a factory. He changed his whole life style by becoming a vegetarian, adding supplements to his diet, juicing, and undergoing ozone therapy, which removes blood from the body, adds ozone to the blood, and then drips it back in.

He is still alive, though getting weaker, and the cancer is not gone, but he is pain free and may live for several more years. He also uses as an example to give cancer patients hope, a 58 year old man who was diagnosed fourteen years ago and had a chest wall resection, and has never had a recurrence of mesothelioma. The mesothelioma survival rate is known to be affected by attitude. A positive attitude and a fighting spirit are needed to fight any chronic disease.