Mesothelioma, a disease arising from exposure to asbestos, generally takes years to develop. Often, by the time it is diagnosed, patients are given but a short time to live; usually about a year to 18 months. A few, if diagnosed early, may survive up to five years if the cancer is treated aggressively, usually via surgery or combination therapies.
The difficulty with early diagnosis is a lack of symptoms and a lack of definitive clues on medical screening exams like X-rays, CT scans and MRIs. Once a diagnosis is obtained, however, mesothelial tumors remain difficult to treat because they commonly involve large amounts of tissue and/or vital organs. In addition, such cancers don’t respond well to chemotherapy, even combination chemotherapies with newer mesothelioma drugs.
A new test developed by a team of scientists and researchers at Oxford University, in the United Kingdom (UK), can diagnose mesothelioma early by evaluating the levels of a certain protein found in pleural effusions, the fluid buildup in the pleural cavity of the lungs commonly associated with the disease.
Pleural effusions occur in many disease states, both benign and malignant. For example, patients with such varied diseases as congestive heart failure, cirrhosis (of the liver), pneumonia, pulmonary embolisms, thoracic and esophageal perforations, rheumatoid arthritis, post-surgical trauma, and tuberculosis can develop such effusions, as can those with lupus, pancreatitis, uremia and sarcoidosis.
However, more than 9 out of 10 individuals with mesothelioma will have pleural effusions, and the current test – a pleural fluid cytology, which looks for cancer cells in the fluids extracted from such effusions – has been found to be not less than definitive in identifying or isolating those cancer cells.
Using the same test, researchers went after the protein meothelin, which is present in much higher quantities in the pleural fluid of patients suffering from mesothelioma, and found that the meothelin is six times more prevalent in patients with mesothelioma than those with other forms of lung cancer, and ten times more prevalent than in patients with benign lung tumors.
According to researchers, the test is not only highly accurate, but provides a way for doctors to rapidly identify mesothelioma in what is largely considered a fairly noninvasive procedure – certainly one less traumatic than biopsies or other forms of tumor sampling.
Not only is the test rapid and relatively non-traumatic, but it eliminates the need for other tests and procedures which can seriously impact a mesothelioma patient’s overall recovery, as well as reducing the amount of time such patients spend in the hospital.
The test, if accepted as a paradigm for diagnostics, could also allow those suffering to file health and compensation claims while there is still a chance of remediating or controlling the disease.
Trades or groups typically affected with mesothelioma include construction workers, electrical workers, firefighters, insulators, maintenance personnel, mechanics, plumbers and telephone workers, and the products in which asbestos was widely used during most the last century include wall, pipe and electrical insulation, floor tiles, (acoustical) ceiling tiles, roofing materials, tile mastics and glues, plasters and wall-patching compounds, auto brake parts, fireproof gloves and clothing, ironing board covers, and hair dryers.
Although mesothelioma has been found in individuals with no known exposure to asbestos, it most commonly occurs among those who have been around the mineral, especially when it has been broken or disturbed. Longer exposure increases the likelihood of developing mesothelioma, but a single exposure can also cause it. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and the American Cancer Society all agree that there is no safe, minimum level of exposure.
In 1989, the U.S. Environmental Agency restricted asbestos in domestic products to one percent by weight or volume, but no such restriction exists for imported products. Thus daily imports of automobile brake pads and fireproof clothing from China, for example, place future generations of Americans at risk for this lethal and virtually incurable cancer.
