Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma Prognostic Marker: A Review of Osteopontin and Soluble Mesothelin Peptides

This article is a review of a series of three studies that proved the involvement of osteopontin as a prognostic marker in malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) cancers. The approach used involved synthesizing and analysing the three articles. The first proves the utilization of osteopontin and mesothelin for diagnostic and prognostic assessment of MPM in patients previously exposed to asbestos and those with pleural metastasis. The second proves that immunohistochemical analysis identified osteopontin to have a prognostic role from its expression in MPM. The third uses the specificity and sensitivity of serum osteopontin to distinguish patients with plueral mesothelioma from subjects with asbestos-related non-malignant diseases. Overall, these remarkable findings are important for understanding of expression of osteopontin in malignant mesothelial cells and in patients with MPM. The use of osteopontin as a prognostic marker in MPM is promising and such fine molecular studies certainly help in bringing osteopontin closer to clinical practice.