Mesothelioma Prognosis

HealthSavvy Sign In | People who are facing mesothelioma are naturally concerned about what their future holds. Understanding this disease and what to expect can help patients and their loved ones:Plan mesothelioma treatment Think about lifestyle changes Make decisions about their quality of life and finances. Many people want to know their mesothelioma prognosis. They may ask their doctor for information or search for statistics on their own.A prognosis is a medical opinion as to the likely course and outcome of a disease. In other words, the prognosis is the chance that a person will recover or have a recurrence (return of the cancer). Many factors can affect a person's prognosis.Factors that can affect a person's prognosis with mesothelioma include:The type and location of the cancer The stage of the disease (the extent to which the cancer has metastasized, or spread) Its grade (how abnormal the cancer cells look and how quickly the cancer is likely to grow and spread) The person's age, general health, and response to treatment. When doctors consider a person's prognosis, they carefully assess all of the factors that could affect that person's disease and treatment, and then try to predict what might happen. The doctor will base the prognosis on information researchers have collected over many years about hundreds (or even thousands) of people with cancer. When possible, the doctor will use statistics based on groups of people whose situations are most similar to that of an individual patient.The doctor may speak of a favorable mesothelioma prognosis if the cancer is likely to respond well to treatment. The prognosis may be unfavorable if the cancer is likely to be difficult to control. However, it is important to keep in mind that a prognosis is only a prediction -- the doctor cannot be absolutely certain about the outcome for a particular patient. function createlink(url, title, index ) { var p=document.createElement("P"); p.setAttribute("onclick", "clickAnchor(event)" ); setClass( p, "chapterList" ); var a = document.createElement( "a"); a.style.color = "white"; var c = url.replace(/'/g, "'"); a.setAttribute("href", c ); a.innerHTML = title; p.appendChild( a ); return p; } function updateLinks() { var toc = document.getElementById("chapterTOC"); toc.innerHTML = ""; var p; p = createlink("#chapter_0","What Is the Prognosis for Mesothelioma?", status.index ); toc.appendChild( p ); p = createlink("#chapter_1","What Is a Prognosis?", status.index ); toc.appendChild( p ); p = createlink("/mesothelioma/mesothelioma-prognosis-p2.html#chapter_2","Factors Influencing the Mesothelioma Prognosis", status.index ); toc.appendChild( p ); p = createlink("/mesothelioma/mesothelioma-prognosis-p2.html#chapter_3","What Are Survival Rates?", status.index ); toc.appendChild( p ); p = createlink("/mesothelioma/mesothelioma-prognosis-p2.html#chapter_4","Relative Survival Rates for Mesothelioma", status.index ); toc.appendChild( p ); p = createlink("/mesothelioma/mesothelioma-prognosis-p3.html#chapter_5","Mesothelioma Prognosis: Final Thoughts", status.index ); toc.appendChild( p ); } updateLinks(); function addToolbarButton(txt,divclass,hrefdest,onclickfunc,title,id) { var tb = document.getElementById("articleToolbar"); var td = document.createElement("TD"); if(id) td.setAttribute("id",id); var d = document.createElement("div"); setClass(d,divclass); d.onclick = function(e){ if (!onclickfunc||onclickfunc(e)!=false) {window.open(hrefdest,"_blank","");}}; d.setAttribute("title", title ); var href = document.createElement("A"); href.setAttribute("href", hrefdest ); href.onclick = onclickfunc; href.setAttribute("title", title ); href.innerHTML = txt; href.target = "_blank"; td.appendChild( d ); td.appendChild( href ); tb.appendChild(td); } function savvyClick(event) { createCookie("articleReferer",window.location + "|Mesothelioma Prognosis",0,".emedtv.com"); urchinTracker("/savvyclick/http://mesothelioma.emedtv.com/mesothelioma/mesothelioma-prognosis.html"); var sc=readCookie("SAVVYLOGIN"); if (sc) { savvyAddTopic("Mesothelioma"); } else { grayWindow(); $('#logintext').html('Sign in to your HealthSavvy account to add this topic:'); document.forms['signinform1'].action='/savvy/loginAddTopicAndReturn.html'; document.forms['signinform1'].topicName="Mesothelioma"; domenu(event,'logininfo',0,-100,true,true,true); $('#email1').focus(); } return false;} function savvyAddTopic(str) { $.ajax({ url: "/savvy/ajaxAddTopic.txt?topic=Mesothelioma", success: function(data){if (data.substring(0,2)=="OK") {data = data.substring(2, data.length);$("#hs_savvy_favorite").css("display","none");}showMessageBox(data); }}); } function createToolbar() {var st=readCookie("SAVVYTOPCIS");if (!st || st.indexOf("|Mesothelioma|")==-1) {addToolbarButton("HealthSavvy", "tb_hsicon tool_sp", "#", savvyClick, "HealthSavvy","hs_savvy_favorite");} addToolbarButton("Share", "tb_face tool_sp", "http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3a%2f%2fmesothelioma.emedtv.com%2fmesothelioma%2fmesothelioma-prognosis.html&t=Mesothelioma+Prognosis", function() {urchinTracker("/facebookshare/http://mesothelioma.emedtv.com/mesothelioma/mesothelioma-prognosis.html");}, "Share on Facebook",null); addToolbarButton( "Share", "tb_twit tool_sp", "http://www.emedtv.com/twittershare.html?status=Currently+reading+Mesothelioma+Prognosis+on+eMedTV%3a+http%3a%2f%2fmesothelioma.emedtv.com%2fmesothelioma%2fmesothelioma-prognosis.html", function() {urchinTracker("/twittershare/http://mesothelioma.emedtv.com/mesothelioma/mesothelioma-prognosis.html");}, "Share on Twitter",null); addToolbarButton( "Email","tb_mail tool_sp", "#", function(event) {emailPage(event);return false;}, "Email Article",null); if ( window.external && typeof(window.external.AddFavorite) != "undefined" ) { addToolbarButton( "Add", "tb_favorite tool_sp", "#", function(event) {bookmarkPage(event);return false;}, "Bookmark Article",null); } addToolbarButton( "Print","tb_print tool_sp", "#", function(event) {printPage(event);return false;}, "Print Article",null); } createToolbar(); Written by/reviewed by: Arthur Schoenstadt, MD Last reviewed by: Arthur Schoenstadt, MD var s = "Last" + " updated/reviewed: "; var lm = document.getElementById("lastmodified"); if ( lm ) { s += "March 27, 2009"; lm.innerHTML = s; }

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