How Is Mesothelioma Diagnosed?
Renowned mesothelioma specialist, Dr. David Sugarbaker explains the mesothelioma diagnosis process.
[MUSIC PLAYING] The lining of the lung and the chest wall, these two pleural surfaces, begin to get thickened due to this constant irritation. At that point, there begins to show on a CT scan or chest X-ray this thickening around the lung itself and also as it grows away from that inner aspect of the rib cage, the so-called inner lining. So what we need to do, as clinicians, is find out what's causing that thickening. And therefore, the first approach is usually to tap away that fluid and have it sent off for cytology to see if there's any evidence of malignant cells within that pool of fluid that is gathered in the patient's chest. Unfortunately, for the majority of patients, when you tap off this fluid and send it off to cytology, the results are negative. And I would caution patients to accept a negative report of that cytology, because for most patients, there can very well be cancer there, even though the cytology is negative. And therefore, a biopsy is the most definitive way in which patients will understand clearly that they either have or don't have mesothelioma. [MUSIC PLAYING]
