A new laboratory test may help international mesothelioma researchers to detect the disease more easily and more accurately.
In a report published in the journal Modern Pathology, a research team in Japan, identified the protein CD146 as a reliable and sensitive indicator of malignant pleural mesothelioma, a type of lung cancer.
The cases of international mesothelioma have been increasing in recent years and may peak in the year 2020. The World Health Organization reports that at least 100,000 lives are lost every year because of the disease.
Conventional cancer treatment is largely ineffective against malignant mesothelioma, and the survival period lasts just 9 to 17 months after diagnosis. Most cases are also diagnosed late in the disease process when patients already have advanced symptoms.
The protein CD146 has also been linked to other types of malignant cancer such as prostate cancer, ovarian cancer, and malignant melanoma.
But the research made by the Japanese team was the first to link the protein with malignant mesothelioma.
The study involved 51 subjects including 23 who had malignant pleural mesothelioma and 28 patients with excess fluid in the lungs. The researchers studied the chemical processes of immune reactions to mesothelioma.
They found out that CD146 levels were higher in patients with malignant mesothelioma compared to patients with benign conditions in their lungs. They used CD146 as an indicator to identify and confirm 90 percent of those with malignant mesothelioma.
The researchers are proposing the use of CD146 as a diagnostic indicator for suspected malignancy to curb rising international mesothelioma cases.
