Mesothelioma Diagnosis

Mesothelioma is a form of cancer which is caused due to asbestos exposure. It is a cancer of the mesothelium membrane which covers and protects most of our internal organs. It is a disease where the mesothelium cells become abnormal and divide without control, leading to damage of the nearby tissues and organs. This normally affects the lungs, abdomen and the heart.

What Are the Symptoms of Mesothelioma?

Symptoms of Mesothelioma include coughing up blood, shortness in breath, troubled breathing, similar to symptoms of aging and hence normally mistaken for other forms of disease.

Another interesting study is called, Expression of c-sis (PDGF B-chain) and PDGF A-chain genes in ten human malignant mesothelioma cell lines derived from primary and metastatic tumors. By Versnel MA, Hagemeijer A, Bouts MJ, van der Kwast TH, Hoogsteden HC. – Department of Cell Biology, Immunology and Genetics, Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Oncogene. 1988 Jun;2(6):601-5. Here is an excerpt: Abstract – Ten human malignant mesothelioma cell lines from primary and metastatic sites were studied for the expression of c-sis (PDGF B-chain) and PDGF A-chain genes. Malignant mesothelioma cell lines expressed strongly the c-sis oncogene which is barely detectable in normal mesothelial cells. The PDGF A-chain gene expression was slightly elevated in malignant mesothelioma cell lines compared to the expression in normal mesothelial cells. Cytogenic and Southern blot analysis did not provide evidence for genomic amplification or rearrangement of the c-sis oncogene. These results suggest that malignant mesothelioma cell lines show constitutively enhanced expression of the c-sis and PDGF A-chain genes that could play a role in the etiology of this type of malignancy.

Another interesting study is called, Detection and Quantitation of Serum Mesothelin, a Tumor Marker for Patients with Mesothelioma and Ovarian Cancer by Raffit Hassan, Alan T. Remaley, Maureen L. Sampson, Jingli Zhang, Derrick D. Cox, James Pingpank, Richard Alexander, Mark Willingham, Ira Pastan and Masanori Onda – Clinical Cancer Research January 2006 12; 447. Here is an excerpt: Abstract – Purpose: To determine whether mesothelin, a cell surface protein highly expressed in mesothelioma and ovarian cancer, is shed into serum and if so to accurately measure it.

The hazards of asbestos are well recognized, with tens of thousands of individuals affected by the disease mesothelioma, asbestosis and linked diseases. For many years, the owners and innocent workers lived and worked around asbestos friable, could do without the know-how of the hazardous and often fatal injuries, breathing in relatively small amounts of asbestos dust. A common problem, among the many people who have had at slightest some exposure to asbestos, the extent to which asbestos causes cancer because you are sick or worse to believe?

The first thing is to know about asbestos exposure, that the negative effects of this exposure have a long latency period. It’s not a person exposed to asbestos do not develop mesothelioma 25-40 years after exposure rarity. Mesothelioma is a cancer of the mesothelium, a shielding layer, which affects most of the security organs of the body covered. Asbestos fibers are inhaled located in the lining of the lungs and ultimately cause cells to change and grow to be malignant. Approximately 70-80% of mesothelioma cases is believed to be caused by varying degrees of exposure to asbestos.