What Are the Stages of Mesothelioma? - It is important not just to diagnose cancer, but to stage it. All kinds of cancers are staged from one through four and this allows doctors to accurately describe how far along the disease has progressed, to communicate that to specialists, and to provide the best treatment plan. There are a few different systems used to stage cancer, but all assign stage one to the least advanced and most curable cases and four to the most advanced.

Stage one patients have the best odds of survival. During this stage, there may not be any symptoms at all for some people. Others that do experience symptoms may notice coughing, fever, chest pain, breathing difficulties, and a general feeling of fatigue.

Stage two patients still have a good chance of survival and will likely experience the same symptoms as those in stage one. However, during stage two, the cancerous tumor starts to invade the cheat cavity, diaphragm, or the lung. The pleura also starts to thicken.

When a patient enters stage three of mesothelioma, the cancer has spread to the point where doctors administer palliative forms of treatment, which is used to treat pain and help reduce symptoms. During this stage, prognosis is generally grim, and most patients will experience severe chest pain, weight loss, night sweats, coughing, and fatigue.

Stage four, the final stage of mesothelioma, occurs when the cancer has spread throughout the body that it’s difficult to remove it all. Prognosis is typically short and grim during the final stage, although there are a number of patients who’ve been the odds and lived years past what physicians expected. As with stage three, doctors concentrate on treatment that will keep the patient as pain-free as possible.

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