Toronto’s University Health Network is conducting a study that seeks a method of early detection of mesothelioma. This organization is Canada’s largest acute care teaching facility, comprised of three Toronto hospitals and a number of research laboratories.
The researchers are seeking volunteers who may have been exposed to asbestos for a lengthy study that will try to pinpoint the onset of mesothelioma. The principal reason for the high fatality rate with this disease is that often it is not diagnosed until it is a highly developed form of cancer. People who are exposed to asbestos at some point in their lives may not develop mesothelioma until many years have passed.
The periodic test procedure will involve a series of low-dosage tomograms that may show, over time, how mesothelioma develops. Hopefully this testing procedure will lead to a methodology for victims of asbestos exposure that will catch mesothelioma in the early stages of its development, when it is still treatable.
This disease has had a deadly, widespread impact because asbestos was a common material in so many different forms of construction material. Knowledge of the disease has, to date, been developed in retrospective fashion through patients with long established cases. There was little awareness of the harmful effects of asbestos until thousands of cases of this form of cancer began to develop.
Now, Canada’s University Health Network is taking steps to see if early detection is possible by studying how these cancer cells develop.
The researchers are seeking volunteers who may have been exposed to asbestos for a lengthy study that will try to pinpoint the onset of mesothelioma. The principal reason for the high fatality rate with this disease is that often it is not diagnosed until it is a highly developed form of cancer. People who are exposed to asbestos at some point in their lives may not develop mesothelioma until many years have passed.
The periodic test procedure will involve a series of low-dosage tomograms that may show, over time, how mesothelioma develops. Hopefully this testing procedure will lead to a methodology for victims of asbestos exposure that will catch mesothelioma in the early stages of its development, when it is still treatable.
This disease has had a deadly, widespread impact because asbestos was a common material in so many different forms of construction material. Knowledge of the disease has, to date, been developed in retrospective fashion through patients with long established cases. There was little awareness of the harmful effects of asbestos until thousands of cases of this form of cancer began to develop.
Now, Canada’s University Health Network is taking steps to see if early detection is possible by studying how these cancer cells develop.
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