The usefulness of biomarkers in diagnosis of asbestos-induced malignant pleural mesothelioma

Introduction: Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is a malignant tumor that is associated mostly with asbestos exposure. The present study was to evaluates the diagnostic value of neopterin, periostin, YKL-40, Tenascin-C (TNC), and Indolamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) as noninvasive markers of malign pleural mesothelioma. Methods: Included in the study were 30 patients diagnosed with malign pleural mesothelioma, and 25 people as a control group. Biomarker levels were determined using an enzyme immunoassay . A Mann-Whitney U test and Spearman correlation methods were used for the statistical analysis. Results: All evaluated biomarkers were found to be significantly higher in the MPM group than in the control group ( p < 0.05). There was no effect of such variables as gender, age or MPMsubtype on the parameters ( p > 0.05) in the patient group. All biomarkers were positively correlated with each other ( p < 0.001). Conclusions: The current non-invasive biomarkers that can be used in the diagnosis of MPM yielded significant results and can make important contributions to the early diagnosis of MPM.