New Advance May Allow Mesothelioma to Be Detected Earlier

This year at the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization’s annual conference an announcement was made that provided insight into a new technique for diagnosing asbestos-related diseases. Michael Harbut, co-director of the National Center for Vermiculite and Asbestos-Related Cancers (NCVAC) at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit, Michigan, thinks the new approach could make a major impact on public health.

The NCVAC was set up through the combined effort of the Karmanos Cancer Institute and the Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine (COEM). The organization’s primary focus is to address the need for early diagnosis and aggressive treatment options for asbestos-related disease.

Presently, a mesothelioma diagnosis normally occurs after the disease has already reached an advanced stage. This means patients typically have limited treatment options and a poor prognosis.

According to Harbut, radiographic approaches developed at Wayne State University School of Medicine allow the visualization of lesions caused by asbestos exposure in three dimensional detail, and often at a much earlier stage than that offered by current standard radiographic techniques. The new approach improves images acquired from a 64-slice high resolution computerized tomography (CT) scan by using the Vitrea® imaging software program developed by Vital Images, Inc.

Advantages of this approach consist of earlier detection, better differentiation between patients with scarring on the lungs and other illnesses, and better success in the general diagnosis and treatment of asbestos-related disease, including mesothelioma. Detection at an earlier phase could play a noteworthy role in reducing the death rate amongst those affected by asbestos exposure.

Dr Carmen Endress, Associate Professor of Radiology at Wayne State, who developed the technology, added, “It’s my sincere hope that with this new approach and enhanced technology we will help reduce the death rate caused by asbestos-related diseases, reduce the suffering by patients and their loved ones, and make a significant contribution to medicine.”