| | | |

Predicting Mesothelioma Survival with Routine Clinical Tests

ByAlex Strauss

predicting mesothelioma survivalUK researchers say predicting mesothelioma survival does not have to be complicated. Their new study shows routine doctor’s office tests may be just as accurate as more complex metrics.

The study appears in the new issue of the BMJ Open Respiratory Research journal. It involved 100 patients with malignant mesothelioma over a four-year period. 

The team compared treatment outcomes among these patients with their results on basic health tests. More often than not, these tests correctly predicted their prognosis. The researchers say simplifying the process of predicting mesothelioma survival could help doctors and patients make better treatment decisions. 

Prognostic Indicators in Asbestos Cancer

Malignant pleural mesothelioma is an uncommon but lethal form of membrane cancer. Patients who get it usually have a history of asbestos exposure. By the time they receive a mesothelioma diagnosis, many have less than a year to live. 

But predicting mesothelioma survival is not cut and dried. Some patients die within a few months. Others live for years or even decades with mesothelioma. A patient’s prognosis can help dictate what treatments they try or what clinical trials they join. 

There are many studies on mesothelioma prognostic factors. Many focus on biomarkers in the blood or lung fluid. These include markers like soluble mesothelin related protein (SMRP), calretinin, fibulin 3, and High-Mobility Group Box 1 (HMGB1). 

But the new study suggests there are simpler ways of predicting mesothelioma survival. They are based on standard tests that doctors usually order. 

Easier Ways of Predicting Mesothelioma Survival

The new study included 100 pleural mesothelioma patients diagnosed at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth, UK, between 2009 and 2013. Researchers analyzed “routinely available histological, clinical and laboratory data”. The goal was to see which factors were associated with 6-month survival. 

These are the variables the researchers included:

  • Smoking status
  • Chest pain
  • Weight loss
  • Platelet count
  • Urea
  • Adjusted calcium

The team created a model for predicting mesothelioma survival based on these factors. It had a predictive c-value of .76, which is classified as “good”. 

“Risk of death at 6 months in patients with a confirmed diagnosis of MPM can be predicted using variables readily available in clinical practice,” writes lead author Samal Gunatilake. Dr. Gunatilake says the new risk prediction model “may be used to influence treatment decisions in patients with MPM.”

More testing of the model is needed before it can be widely used for predicting mesothelioma survival. But it suggests that simpler mesothelioma prognosis is possible.

More than 2,500 Americans will receive a mesothelioma diagnosis in 2021. Most of them are people who worked or lived around asbestos in the past. 

Source:

Gunatilake, S, et al, “Predicting survival in malignant pleural mesothelioma using routine clinical and laboratory characteristics”, January 2021, BMJ Open Respiratory Research, https://bmjopenrespres.bmj.com/content/8/1/e000506

 

Similar Posts

  • |

    Mesothelioma Still Rising Despite Ban in Ireland

    ByAlex Strauss

    A study in Ireland confirms that it can take many years for a ban on asbestos to have a measurable impact on a country’s rates of malignant mesothelioma. Mesothelioma is the most serious of a list of diseases – including lung cancer, pleural plaques, asbestosis, and others – linked with exposure to asbestos dust. Affecting the linings around the lungs and other organs, mesothelioma is often resistant to most cancer treatments and may be fatal within a year of diagnosis. According to the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat, Ireland is one of 55 countries that have enacted some type of asbestos ban. However, although Ireland banned asbestos in 2000, a new study published in Cancer Epidemiology shows that incidence of the…

  • |

    Website Aims to Protect Homeowners from Mesothelioma

    ByAlex Strauss

    Australia’s Cancer Council is trying to educate home renovators about their risk for mesothelioma with a new e-learning course. Australia has one of the highest per capita rates of mesothelioma in the world, largely because of several asbestos mining operations that were once located there. Although asbestos has been banned from building products in Australia since 1989, asbestos-linked diseases like mesothelioma, lung cancer, and asbestosis continue to pose a serious health concern. While mesothelioma has traditionally occurred among people exposed to asbestos on the job, Australia is now bracing for another “wave” of mesothelioma victims among homeowners who encounter asbestos while doing their own renovation projects. Cancer Council Australia has launched “kNOw asbestos in your home” in an effort to…

  • |

    Ape Virus Shrinks Mesothelioma Tumors in Lab

    ByAlex Strauss

    A virus that causes leukemia in gibbon apes may have the power to help fight malignant mesothelioma in people. Gibbon ape leukemia virus (GALV) has been tested for years as a viral vector, a carrier of therapeutic genetic information, in the treatment of various human illnesses, including cancer. A new study in Japan compared GALV with a leukemia virus derived from mice to see which carrier communicated most efficiently with mesothelioma cells. While both types of viruses replicated in most of the mesothelioma cell lines tested, the mouse-derived virus was not effective in a mesothelioma cell line called ACC-MESO-1. In this cell line, only the GALV spread efficiently both in culture and in mice that had been given human mesothelioma…

  • | | |

    Mesothelioma Nurses Ready for New Cases in Australia

    ByAlex Strauss

    Australia is bracing for an expected new wave of mesothelioma cases in the next decade and the Lung Foundation of Australia is taking action now to get ready. The Foundation has paid for ten nurses from around the country to receive specialized training in helping patients and families cope with mesothelioma. The nurses, who have recently completed the training, are now equipped to lead treatment planning for these complex cancer patients and to help other nurses do the same. Pleural mesothelioma is an aggressive cancer that occurs in the lining around the lungs. It is caused by exposure to asbestos dust, a toxin that was once alarmingly prevalent in Australia where it was mined and heavily used in construction. Because…

  • |

    Mesothelioma Blood Test May Be Possible

    ByAlex Strauss

    An international team of researchers is studying the proteins found on the surface of cancer cells in an effort to improve mesothelioma diagnosis. The team, made up of scientists from the US, Switzerland, Italy and Chile, has just published their findings on a new kind of test to identify protein-derived mesothelioma biomarkers in blood serum. Mesothelioma is an aggressive cancer of the membranes around organs. Because the most common mesothelioma biomarker, mesothelin, is also overproduced by other kinds of cancer cells, it has only limited diagnostic value. A test to identify a set of proteins produced specifically by mesothelioma cells could greatly improve diagnostic accuracy. Led by Ferdinando Cerciello and Bernd Wollscheid of the Institute of Molecular Systems Biology in…

  • | |

    Spanish Mesothelioma Deaths Likely to Continue for Decades

    ByAlex Strauss

    New research in Spain suggests that mesothelioma deaths will continue in the country until the “last surviving member” of the group of people exposed to occupational asbestos succumbs to the disease. Like many countries, Spain used asbestos heavily in the first half of the 20th century, especially in construction, where the mineral was prized for its durability, low cost, and resistance to fire and corrosion.  Asbestos was banned in Spain in 2002. Observing that more than 2.5 million metric tons of asbestos were imported into Spain from 1906 to 2002, researchers say deaths from mesothelioma have risen steadily. Between 1976 and 1980, a total of 491 Spanish people died of mesothelioma. By the 5-year period from 2006 to 2010, that…