A story in the Honolulu Advertiser reported today that researchers at the University of Hawaii have made a breakthrough in mesothelioma research. Here is the full text of the story:

“A team of researchers led by Dr. Michele Carbone, director of the Cancer Research Center of Hawaii Thoracic Oncology Program and chair of pathology at the John A. Burns School of Medicine, has won the inaugural Landon Foundation-AACR Innovator Award for International Collaboration in Cancer Research.

The team discovered a unique mesothelioma epidemic in three Turkish villages was caused by a genetic predisposition to mineral fiber carcinogenesis. The researchers will apply the $100,000 grant to identifying the predisposing gene or genes for mesothelioma among this cultural group and map the genetic risk factors by genetic linkage studies.

Carbone’s researchers include those from the University of Hawaii, universities on the Mainland and the Hacettepe University School of Medicine in Ankara, Turkey.”

People that I’ve talked to who are affected by mesothelioma often wonder why they have this disease, oftentimes when many of their family members were exposed. They worry that their loved ones might contract this disease, but also puzzle about how it strikes one person out of many exposed similarly.

How exciting that new research may help point out genetic risk factors that could lead to better early screening and detection!