Mesothelioma Research Results Offer Potential Route to Earlier Detection

Cancer experts have known for decades that asbestos causes mesothelioma. Yet, only 2 to 10 percent of people with prolonged asbestos exposure are diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma, the most common type of the disease. Researchers want to know how the disease actually happens, and what this may tell us about why some people exposed to asbestos develop the disease while others do not. The latest results from the Shukla Research Lab at the pathology and laboratory medicine department at the University of Vermont have shed light on the precise steps for how asbestos fibers lead to mesothelioma. The newly described pathway from asbestos exposure to mesothelioma may one day be used as a way to detect the cancer earlier. This is an exciting possibility because survival is better for people diagnosed with early-stage mesothelioma than it is for patients diagnosed with more advanced disease. From Asbestos Fibers to Diagnosable Disease Until this new study, there was a gap in understanding key steps for how fibers entering the lungs end up causing cancer in a different tissue. Even though asbestos fibers enter the body through the lungs, mesothelioma cancer occurs in the mesothelium, which is also known as the lining of the chest cavity. Asbestos fibers do appear to migrate to the chest lining. However, this doesn’t account for all of the early inflammation and damage that leads to cancer in these cells. The University of Vermont lab, which is run by Dr. Arti Shukla, sought to...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - Category: Environmental Health Authors: Source Type: news