Pleural mesothelioma is a rare and aggressive disease that is very difficult to diagnose. Due to the lack of reliable tests, determining the presence of mesothelioma tumors in the past was not easy. Late appearance of the symptoms and their similarity with the symptoms of common illnesses made it even more difficult to diagnose this cancer. Therefore, alternative methods of treatment had to be developed.
The development of a new blood test known as Mesomark® has made it very easy to determine the presence of pleural mesothelioma. It has made the use of mesothelioma tumor markers more common. Tumor markers are substances that are produced by the cancer cells and they are commonly present in the blood and the cancer tissues. These substances can be either produced by the cancer cells or the normal cell in response to the malignant cancer. This test can be very helpful in detecting the tumor markers even when the cancer is in its earliest stages. The development of Mesomark® is a great achievement as most of the mesothelioma cases are diagnosed when the tumor has already grown to the other parts of the body and become resistant to the treatment.
However, other tests and procedures have to be used to be sure of the asbestos related disease diagnosis. This test can indicate if the person has cancer or not, if the results are positive further tests like MRI, CT scan and biopsy may be recommended to identify the type and location of the cancer. One can not rely on Mesomark® only to confirm diagnosis of a critical cancer like pleural mesothelioma.
The first step in diagnosis of pleural mesothelioma is the X-ray; it can give a brief glance at the chest area for spotting the presence of tumor masses and may also be able to show pleural effusion (presence of excess fluid in the pleura; fluid space surrounding the lungs). Next step will be taking the CT scan test, very common procedure in diagnosis of the pleural mesothelioma. It can show a much clearer picture of the tumor masses as compared to the X-ray and it is also able to detect the tumor at its early stage.
PET scans and MRI scans are more sophisticated procedures. They provide important information for the surgical treatment of the pleural mesothelioma. These help to show are very clear image of the tumors and also detect their location. After confirming the presence and location of the tumor, biopsy will be required to get samples of the tissues for microscopic analysis of the tumor.
Development of Mesomark® may be a great step toward early diagnosis of the pleural mesothelioma but it should not be ignored that the most important thing is to consult a physician and inform him if you are aware of being exposed to asbestos fibers. A minor level of exposure is able to cause the development of this aggressive cancer. If the doctor has no such information there is a great possibility of being misdiagnosed. This gives more time to the tumor to spread to other parts of the body. The doctor may not recommend this test if he is not on the lookout for asbestos related diseases.