A New Way to Diagnose Mesothelioma

Pleural Mesothelioma is a deadly form of cancer, caused by exposure to asbestos, which forms in the lining near the lungs. This disease is particularly difficult to treat in part because it is very difficult to accurately diagnose while still in its early stages.

Mesothelioma has an extraordinarily long latency period and usually doesn’t present any symptoms at all for several decades. To further increase the difficulty of early diagnosis, pleural mesothelioma presents many of the same symptoms as the much more common, but vastly different, lung cancer.

Much research has been conducted on finding better ways to diagnose pleural mesothelioma earlier as doing so allows the patient to start the appropriate treatments earlier and can increase their quality of life while dealing with the disease.

Traditionally, pleural mesothelioma is diagnosed when the patient comes forward with pulmonary issues, such as difficulty or painful breathing. Medical professionals then construct a medical profile to see if there is any history of asbestos exposure. In conjunction with this, doctors may also imaging technologies (X-ray, MRI, CT, PET) may be used. In some cases, doctors may take a biopsy of the pleura.

Recent research has led to the development of a new diagnosis method that may be more effective at detecting mesothelioma early as well as being much less stressful on the patient.

The new technique involves detecting the individual components in a person’s exhaled breath. Because pleural mesothelioma affects the area around the lungs (and can eventually spread to the lungs themselves), it appears that certain components of exhaled breath may contain information on the presence of pleural mesothelioma.

To detect these components, researchers have constructed a machine, referred to as an electronic nose, which can analyze the particles in a person’s breath. Researchers believe that this electronic nose may be able to accurately detect if a person has malignant pleural mesothelioma and may be able to detect it much earlier and safer than other, more traditional methods of diagnosis.

The results of the study using this electronic nose show that the device has a sensitivity of 92.3 percent and a specificity of 85.7 percent. This means that 92.3 percent of people who actually had malignant pleural mesothelioma were identified correctly by this machine. In addition, 85.7 percent of those who did not have the disease were identified correctly. While these results are not perfect, it appears that researchers are on the right track when it comes to developing more effective ways to diagnosis malignant pleural mesothelioma.

There are many benefits for patients if this method of diagnosis becomes slightly more refined. In addition to being able to begin treatment earlier, this method offers many other benefits.

One major benefit is that this method is that it is less physically demanding that taking a biopsy via surgery. Due to the long latency period of mesothelioma, many patients who are being tested for this disease are elderly, which presents many additional possible complications when undergoing surgery. This method would eliminate or reduce the risks that those individuals would face.

This method, if approved, would offer a save and non-invasive alternative to the traditional pleural mesothelioma diagnosis methods. Early and safe detection of this disease could greatly improve the quality of life of those who are unfortunate enough to suffer from malignant pleural mesothelioma.