How Is The Diagnosis Of Malignant Mesothelioma Made?
Malignant mesothelioma is a diagnostically challenging disease. Patients are often misdiagnosed initially. Accurate diagnosis and staging is important for appropriate treatment, as well as for epidemiology and possible subsequent litigation due to asbestos exposure.
Often, thoracentesis or closed pleural biopsy can establish the diagnosis of a pleural malignancy, but inadequate tissue may not distinguish mesothelioma from lung adenocarcinoma. Additionally, negative results do not rule out the disease. Video-assisted thoracoscopic biopsy (VATS) has been shown to be superior in providing the diagnosis compared to thoracentesis and pleural biopsy.
Other diagnostic studies may provide clinically useful information such as bronchoscopy, mediastinoscopy, pulmonary function tests, PET and/or CT scans. There are no useful serum tumor markers associated with malignant mesothelioma.
