Prognosis with Stage 3 Mesothelioma
As there is no current known cure for mesothelioma cancer, treatment options in all stages of the disease are generally targeted at making patients comfortable and extending quality of life as much as possible. This kind of treatment is known as palliative care. The stages of mesothelioma do help doctors to determine what regimen of mesothelioma therapy is appropriate for which patients.
Stage 3 mesothelioma is the second most serious form of the disease. While more serious than stage 1 mesothelioma and stage 2 mesothelioma, stage 3 mesothelioma is still less serious than stage 4 mesothelioma, which is the most advanced form of the disease.
The prognosis, or outlook, generally means how long and how comfortably a patient can expect to live. While there are no guarantees, the right combination of palliative stage 3 mesothelioma treatments can improve the prognosis of a patient.
Stage 3 Mesothelioma: What are Mesothelioma Stages?
The American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) TNM staging system is the most commonly used system by mesothelioma doctors. The letters indicate three separate pieces of information, defined by ACS as follows:
- T indicates the extent of spread of the main (primary) tumor.
- N describes how much the cancer has spread to nearby (regional) lymph nodes. Lymph nodes are small bean-shaped collections of immune system cells to which cancers often spread first.
- M indicates whether the cancer has spread (metastasized) to other organs of the body. (The most common sites are the pleura on the other side of the body, the lungs, and the peritoneum.)
Numbers or letters appear after T, N, and M to provide more details about each of these factors. Higher numbers mean the cancer is more advanced.
Stage 3 Mesothelioma: What is Stage 3 Mesothelioma?
ACS states that stage 3 mesothelioma is when the cancer is in the pleura lining the chest on one side, and may or may not have grown into the pleura lining the lung, the diaphragm, or the mediastinum. It may also have grown into the muscle of the diaphragm or the lung itself (T1 or T2).
Stage 3 mesothelioma cases have usually spread to lymph nodes in the chest on the same side as the cancer (N1 or N2). Despite all this, stage 3 mesothelioma has still not spread to distant sites (M0).
If you or a loved one are undergoing stage 3 mesothelioma treatments and think that the diagnosis has been caused by asbestos exposure, there may be legal action you can take. Speak to a mesothelioma attorney at Sokolove Law today.