Mesothelioma Attorney Los Angeles
A simple blood test could detect early signs of “deadly asbestos cancer, scientists have claimed.
Patients with mesothelioma – often caused by exposure to asbestos – often die within a few years of diagnosis.
But in a study published in The Lancet, the researchers check the levels of a key protein may identify more than 80% of cases at an early stage.
Early detection means doctors could treat the patient with chemotherapy, radiation or surgery.
Mesothelioma affects the mesothelial tissue surrounding the lungs.
The aggressive cancer develops decades after exposure to asbestos.
But not everyone who worked with asbestos ever develop cancer, and Australian scientists were looking for a way to identify who was at risk.
Exposure to asbestos
Researchers at the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Perth, Australia, developed a test to evaluate blood levels of soluble mesothelian related (SMR) proteins, which has proven to be an indicator of other cancers.
Scientists believe that high levels of SMR can also be seen in patients with asbestos cancer.
Blood samples were obtained from patients attending respiratory clinics in Perth between 1997 and 2002, and tested their SMR levels.
Thirty-seven of the 44 people with mesothelioma had high SMR levels – a 84% rate of accurate detection.
In seven people who had been exposed to asbestos, which also had increased blood concentrations of SMR, three went on to develop mesothelioma and lung cancer in the five-year study.
But none of the 33 people exposed to asbestos who had normal concentrations of SMR mesothelioma at that time.
And only three out of 160 patients with other cancers or other inflammatory diseases of the lung, and none of the 28 controls who had not been exposed to asbestos had elevated SMR.
The researchers said their findings indicated SMR could be a useful way to control the growth of mesothelial tumors because the concentrations were observed to increase during tumor progression.
Improve the chances of patients
Dr. Bruce Robinson, who led the research, said: “Based on our data we propose that measurement of SMR concentrations in serum is a useful adjunct in the diagnosis of mesothelioma.
“Blood SMR concentrations should be monitored in people exposed to asbestos are at risk of developing mesothelioma to determine whether early therapeutic intervention improves patients’ outcomes.”
He added: “Importantly for the hundreds of thousands of people exposed to asbestos are at risk of this cancer, the test can detect cancer for several years before that occurs.”
Dr Siow Ming Lee, a lung cancer specialist and spokesman for Cancer Research UK: “These results are interesting, but they must be validated in a larger study.
“You would have to ensure that the test gave no false-positive -. And be aware that the presence of the protein may indicate other types of cancer”.
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