Mesothelioma is always found quite late in America. To find mesothelioma CT scans, X-rays, tissue biopsy and blood tests are all often needed. And yet it is still often found quite late, when treatment isn’t very successful. Owlstone Medical which invented the breath biopsy in the United Kingdom and the International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers which is a union in Canada and the United States for building trade are collaborating in hopes to find a better way.

Early diagnosis is really rare, especially in America. The most common type of mesothelioma is pleural mesothelioma. The symptoms looked for to see if a patient has pleural mesothelioma all are not very easy to see until late in the cancer. If pleural mesothelioma could be diagnosed earlier on then the treatments would be more effective. Also a lot of scans and tests are currently necessary for finding the cancer. This study might change that and even make it possible to find that you are predisposed to mesothelioma! With the late diagnosis of mesothelioma in America the average time that people live after diagnosis is only 18 months. Almost a quarter of the people diagnosed with mesothelioma are at that point eligible for an aggressive surgery. Every year in the United States 3000 people are diagnosed with mesothelioma. That’s a lot of people! And in most of these cases their exposure to asbestos came from a job they had some point in their life. Maybe someday instead of having to go to some big institution you can have a mesothelioma test in the local union hall. Owlstone Medical and the International Association of Heat and Frost Insulators and Allied Workers are working together on a study in hopes of finding a way to diagnose mesothelioma early on in the disease, maybe even before it begins. How do they plan to carry this out? Dr Michael Harbut has been an occupational medical specialist for 30 years. For most of his career he has been combating asbestos related diseases. He is really excited about the breath based biomarkers that he is working with through this study as the lead investigator. He says they have great potential and are incredibly significant. Owlstone Medical developed a Breath Biopsy recently for diagnosing pulmonary hypertension early as well as its subtypes. Now they are trying to make it for mesothelioma too. Although asbestos is used a whole lot less now that in the 1950s it is still a big problem in older buildings. There will be two main parts to this study. The first part will be to identify certain organic compounds in the breath of patients that already have been diagnosed with mesothelioma. Then the second part will be to verify how well and how accurately these organic compounds diagnose the cancer. After all, we don’t want to be given cures we don’t need! How does this affect us? Firstly we see that mesothelioma is often diagnosed very late in the disease when it is really bad. And it is often diagnosed through a bunch of scans and tests. And that isn’t ideal, so when there is a way around it, why not take it? And now we hear that maybe there is one! Also 3,000 people in the United States are diagnosed with mesothelioma each year! The simplest cure to anything is prevention. So if you have asbestos in your home or building don’t delay, call us now at (312) 586-8713