Do I need another (second) opinion?
In general terms, it is always good to get a second opinion when you are diagnosed with a rare and deadly disease.
For you in particular, it depends on who made your diagnosis and how comfortable you feel about it.
For example, if you live in a large city with big medical centers, your diagnosis may actually have been made by an expert. Your regular doctor may have seen things on your chest x-ray, or one of your scans, that looked like it could be mesothelioma. If you know you have been exposed to asbestos, he or she might have sent you straight away to a mesothelioma expert. In a case like that, one opinion might suffice.
On the other hand, if you don’t have easy access to experts or mesothelioma treatment centers, your diagnosis may have been made by your regular doctor and pathologist.
You should ask how many cases of mesothelioma your doctor has seen. If it isn’t many, you should consider getting a second opinion. If you have no known exposure to asbestos you should probably get a second opinion. If the pathologist has any reservations, you should get a second opinion. The pathologist might have gone so far as to send your slides somewhere else for further testing, because he or she is not sure. Mesothelioma is not an easy diagnosis to make.
If your doctor suggests that you get a second opinion, or refers you to a mesothelioma treatment center, you know that’s what you need.