All Blood Tests

The pleural mesothelioma is a rare disease of the lining of the lung and chest cavity that is normally cancerous.  The cause is asbestos exposure and it could take 15 to 35 years to create this disease, counting from the time of asbestos exposure.

Nonetheless, the current researches have pointed out a blood test that might help screening for pleural mesothelioma by checking the blood for high levels of a protein called osteopontin. This is important because blood osteopontin levels rise dramatically in the early stages of the disease. This type of cancer is a deadly asbestos related disease.

This exposure could be direct with the substance or second-hand, with a family member whose clothing or skin carried the asbestos into the home. Clearly in the last case, the development of the illness could take more than 35 years.

Because of pleural mesothelioma it is difficult to detect it in its early, it has high mortality rates and a life expectancy of few months. However, with the new blood test mentioned above, it is expected a higher percentage of probabilities to detect it. Further, it can detect other types of asbestos related cancers. But in those cases, the findings need further studies, other type of cancer that can be early detected through blood test is for example “Ovarian Cancer”.

So, the earlier pleural mesothelioma cancer is detected, the better chances that people  affected have. If you want to know how to do it, a blood test may  be very useful in these cases.