Despite many years of clinical research, there is still no effective therapy for malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM). In general, MPM is a disease confined to the pleural cavity for a long time before metastasizing. Therefore, focus on local treatment seems rational. Both asbestos and erionite can cause a variety of benign and malignant chest diseases. Among the latter, pleural mesothelioma is the most serious. The estimated incidence of malignant pleural mesothelioma has been reported to be 43 per million inhabitants in the south-east of Turkey alone. In a retrospective study, Selcuk et al. showed a relatively better survival in patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma caused by exposure to asbestos.
Parenchymal nodules were followed according to lung cancer screening recommendations, morphology and location of pleural plaques was noted in detail. Screening prior asbestos workers detects advanced malignant pleural mesothelioma and early as well as late stage lung cancer. Shotgun pyrosequencing is now used to characterize RNA mutations and expression levels unique to malignant pleural mesotheliomas (MPMs) and not present in control tissues.
