Raleigh, NC (PRWEB) September 04, 2014

Italian Researchers ran extensive blood tests on asbestos workers, mesothelioma patients, and healthy people and found a signaling protein they say could be a “critical biomarker” for the asbestos cancer. Click here to read a newly-posted article on the study on the Surviving Mesothelioma website.

Doctors from three Italian universities found that a protein called RANTES, which is responsible for attracting leucocytes to inflammation sites in the body, was elevated in people with a history of asbestos exposure and highest in those with mesothelioma.

“If validated in larger samples, this factor could have the potential to be a critical biomarker for malignant mesothelioma prognosis as recently reported for breast tumor,” states lead study author Dr. Manola Comar of the University of Trieste.

Published in the open-access medical journal PLoS One, the study also found patterns of signaling proteins that were unique in asbestos-exposed workers and mesothelioma patients.

“Without a screening tool, it is virtually impossible to detect mesothelioma in its early stages, or even before it starts,” says Surviving Mesothelioma’s Managing Editor Alex Strauss. “This study could be a turning point in the effort to find a simple and effective screening test to monitor people who have been exposed to asbestos.”

To read more of the study’s findings, see Protein Could be “Critical Biomarker” for Mesothelioma in Asbestos-Exposed Workers now available on the Surviving Mesothelioma website.

Comar, M et al, “Increased Levels of C-C Chemokine RANTES in Asbestos Exposed Workers and in Malignant Mesothelioma Patients from an Hyperendemic Area”, August 27, 2014, PLoS One, http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0104848

For nearly ten years, Surviving Mesothelioma has brought readers the most important and ground-breaking news on the causes, diagnosis and treatment of mesothelioma. All Surviving Mesothelioma news is gathered and reported directly from the peer-reviewed medical literature. Written for patients and their loved ones, Surviving Mesothelioma news helps families make more informed decisions.






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