Sarcomatoid Mesothelioma is a very uncommon and rare
type of cancer disease. Sarcomatoid Mesothelioma is caused by Asbestos
exposure. Sarcomatoid Mesothelioma is not only difficult to diagnose, this
type of cancer also hardly responds to any type of therapy. It is the most
serious of all known diseases related to asbestos exposure and asbestos
inhalation.
Sarcomatoid Mesothelioma can be found on the lips
and the larynx. In some cases it may attack the oral cavity as well. Equal
to other kinds and forms of mesothelioma cancers, this cancer is a very
fatal disease and there is nothing to palliate about. It hardly responds
to any mehtod of treatment. Usually radiation therapy is recommended and
used against these kinds of cancerous tumors, but especially cancers
caused by asbestos very often are not radiosensitive and withstand any
radiation treatment. It is a very serious threat.
Diagnosis of Sarcomatoid Mesothelioma:
It is very difficult even for specialised doctors to
differentiate sarcomatoid mesothelioma from other cell tumors and cell
cancers by use of light microscopy surgery. Also the role that
immunohistochemistry plays is not very well defined in the diagnosis of
the disease. Sarcomatoid Mesothelioma is not always cytokeratin-negative,
it is not always possible to really find the distinction in between
Sarcomatoid Mesothelioma and Sarcoma. In this context and being faced with
a deadly disease which is in addition and to make things worse difficult
do diagnose, the doctors and scientists undertook a study
to investigate the utility of diagnostic immunohistochemistry for
distinguishing sarcomatoid mesothelioma from its histological mimics,
high-grade sarcoma and pulmonary sarcomatoid carcinoma.
The scientists stained the mesotheliomas with
sarcomatoid components. They assessed the intensity and distribution of
staining with the help of a semi quantitative scale. Only tumors with
unequivocal staining were considered positive for tabulation. Then they
compared the immunophenotypic profiles of these tumors with 24 high-grade
sarcomas. The sarcomatoid carcinomas were also stained for thyroid
transcription factor-1 (TTF-1).
The study revealed that Cytokeratin 5/6 stained most
of the epithelioids but the sarcomatoids were rarely stained. On the other
hand, Calretinin and thrombomodulin each stained 70% of sarcomatoid. All
10 sarcomatoids were negative for TTF-1. This led to the conclusion that a
wide immunophenotypic overlap exists among different sarcomatoids.
Cytokeratin and calretinin have the most value in
differentiating different sarcomatoids. Clinicopathological data,
especially information about the gross appearance
of the tumor is quite important for sarcomatoid tumors. Thus, it should be
noted and carefully correlated with microscopic and immunohistochemical
findings.
Use of Asbestos and itīs aftermath is and will long
be a medical challenge and a threat to people suffering by the diseases it
causes. Even after the ban of asbestos out of industry and constructual
use in the 1970s it still affects people, mostly due to the reason that it
can take up to 30 or even 50 years for asbestos caused cancer diseases to
develop within a human body. Also not all old buildings and facilities are
yet cleaned off their asbestos components. Most disastrous also had been
the asbestos cloud blown over New York City after the September 11
attacks, because of the extensive use of asbestos within the construction
of the World Trade Center towers.
