A minimally invasive blood test significantly improve the early detection, diagnosis and treatment of malignant mesothelioma. An aggressive mesothelioma associated with cancer of the airways in healthy subjects, the asbestos fibers are inhaled in the air. Asbestos is a mineral fiber that often in products for the manufacture and construction of a large part of the 20th Century was used.Malignant Mesothelioma occurs in the lining of the lungs or the lining of the abdomen. Remains a serious health problem in the United States and the world in the coming decades.
Researchers continue to search for antibodies, enzymes and other markers that help doctors to diagnose malignant mesothelioma, without holding a needle in a patient for breast biopsy tissue. Mesothelioma can be treated with surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. But often reaches the disease at an advanced stage before patients are diagnosed and the diagnosis, the median survival time after less than two years. A reliable method for the detection of persons detected with asbestos and mesothelioma at an early stage may improve treatment for patients have been exposed.
Calretinin is a marker most commonly used for the diagnosis of malignant mesothelioma. The protein is an antibody and research has suggested that it plays a role in cell survival during exposure to asbestos. However, their effectiveness is shown as an indicator of blood-based malignancies.
In an article recently published in 2010 in the journal BMC Cancer, researchers in Germany and France Calretinin may recommend for early detection of malignant mesothelioma useful, possibly in combination with other biomarkers such as Mesothelin. Mesothelioma usually detects subtype of malignant Mesothelin epithelioid malignant mesothelioma, but a low sensitivity for the detection turmors sarcomatoid and biphasic malignant mesothelioma. A panel of biomarkers that are sensitive to different types of tumors may be better to recognize mesothelioma, said the researchers.
Researchers have developed a way to a level of calretinin in the blood of patients with malignant mesothelioma measure. In comparison, the researchers also protein expression in people with and without measured mild lung disease were exposed to asbestos, and in healthy persons who had no known exposure to asbestos. They found that blood samples from people with malignant mesothelioma had significantly higher values of calretinin. They said there was also a significant difference in calretinin levels in people exposed to asbestos (cancer, but hadnt developed) and healthy people exposed to asbestos hadnt.
The researchers emphasize that their results are based on a study of a small number of patients and other studies with more subjects are necessary to confirm its usefulness in the diagnosis of mesothelioma patients. Further investigations are underway.
