Proper diagnosis of Pleural Mesothelioma, a form of cancer in the thoracic cavity caused by contact with asbestos, is of great importance because it enables the patient to get disease-specific treatment immediately and also arms him adequately for any lawsuit for compensation.

Unfortunately, diagnosis of this sickness is a very difficult process. The reasons are several. There are no specific to the disease outward signs. The symptoms like breathing difficulty, coughing, weight loss, chest and back pains, and fatigue among others are common to many ailments. They can confuse a doctor. And these indications take twenty to forty or fifty years after contact with asbestos to manifest. If some cases there may be no perceptible clues till the cancer has spread. Many doctors are unfamiliar with the disease. One key factor that would give the correct lead to a doctor is the information whether the patient had exposure to asbestos in the past. Since most of the pleural mesothelioma patients are in the sixty-seventy age group, there is the possibility that some of them may not recall details dating back forty or fifty years.

Diagnostic procedure starts with studying the patient