Mesothelioma Research

A group of British researchers working with the charity organization Cancer Research UK recently discovered that counting the number of lung cancer cells in a patient's blood could help indicate which treatment should be used.

According to a release from the organization, the research, which was published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, found that patients with five or more circulating tumor cells (CTCs) had a much lower rate of survival.

"Our research shows a new way to monitor how a patient’s lung cancer is responding to treatment and determine how aggressive it is," said joint author Dr. Fiona Blackhall. "We now need to test our findings in more patients but, if our results are confirmed, there is now the potential to tailor treatments to individual patients and find new ways to treat the disease."

The study demonstrates that counting the cancerous cells could potentially be a less invasive way to determine if the treatment is actually working, according to the release.

One cause of lung cancer in patients is the inhalation of asbestos fibers which can be released into the air when the material is disturbed. In addition to lung cancer, asbestos exposure can cause asbestosis and malignant mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer.