Further Outpatient Care
Regular follow-up visits with an internist, pulmonary specialist, medical oncologist, and radiation oncologist are recommended.
Complications
- The tumor recurrence rate is 50% for those treated with surgery.
- The mortality rate secondary to surgery has improved. Even with extensive surgery, the mortality rate as reported by Huncharek et al and by Sugerbaker et al in 1996 was 3.8%.[31, 12]
Prognosis
- Without treatment, mesothelioma is fatal within 4-8 months.
- With trimodality treatment, some patients have survived 16-19 months. A few have survived as long as 5 years, with rates of 14% for all types and 46% for the epithelial type. However, numbers are small.
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