How do doctors diagnose mesothelioma?

Malignant mesothelioma is not easy to diagnose. One of the first symptoms that patients experience is a dry cough or a shortness of breath. Most of the patients who have these symptoms receive an initial treatment but the symptoms only go away for a short period of time or not at all.

There are several aspects that influence the diagnosis of the age of the patient, the lack of a clear cause of cancer, the presence/absence of lung masses and the earlier the patient is diagnosed, the more options of treatment he/she has.

In order to diagnose mesothelioma, most of the doctors choose to perform a thoracentesis (drainage of the lung using a needle) but 50% of the tests of this type have a negative result.

Therefore, more aggressive tests are recommended like biopsy or pleuroscopy (camera-assisted biopsy). Imaging techniques like ultrasound, CT and MRI are also helpful but only a tissue sample can lead to a correct diagnosis.

Comments from doctors

Actually, there is no standard path that doctors follow in order to diagnose all the patients. Every person is diagnosed in a different way as there are a lot of aspects that influence the diagnosis like age and medical history.
Doctors usually begin the diagnosing process by asking the patient about his/her medical history and by running some standard tests. Also, it is very important for them to know if the patient has been exposed to asbestos throughout their life.
The more details about your medical history you tell your doctor, the more you hasten the diagnosing process.

We wanted a resource where people who are looking for better help can find it, because one of the issues that I have found is that the diagnosis takes a little bit, some people don’t know if they are diagnosed or not. This is something that it is important enough, that is why I wanted to put the information together.