Unfortunately, individuals suffering from mesothelioma (a form of cancer caused by asbestos exposure) have a rather poor prognosis. There is currently no cure for mesothelioma, and once the disease is discovered, patients usually only have a short time to live. Without treatment, mesothelioma is fatal within four to eight months. New forms of treatment are always being developed and tested, however, and there is evidence that the healthier a patient is at the time of diagnosis, the longer the life expectancy of the patient.
There are cases where patients receiving treatment have lived for as long as five or even ten years, but this is very rare. Even under treatment, most people survive less than one year, and often only a few months after receiving their mesothelioma diagnosis. According to recent studies, around 10% of victims live at least three years after their diagnosis, and 5% reach five years.
One of the reasons that the prognosis is so bad is that there is such a long period of time between a person's exposure to asbestos and the development of mesothelioma symptoms. It can take several decades before signs of mesothelioma begin to show up in a person. One study showed that when mesothelioma is caught and treated in its early stages, 50% of patients survived two years, and 20% reached five years, but unfortunately it is very difficult to discover the disease early on. The fact that the symptoms of mesothelioma are so easily confused with other illnesses further delays a correct mesothelioma diagnosis in many cases.
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