In a breakthrough research, scientists from Germany have now developed a novel way to diagnose a lethal lung disease that is caused by the prolonged exposure to asbestos.

The disease called mesothelioma has attracted the attention of health experts and legal attorneys across the world since many years. The lung disease that is caused by the asbestos exposure has no known effective treatments yet and thus, usage of asbestos has been banned by a majority of countries.

With no evident symptoms in the early stages, it is only diagnosed in the advanced levels – the time by which it is often too late to treat it.

But the researchers now claim that by examining the lung tissue for minute fibers of asbestos, they can precisely estimate if the person is suffering from this deadly disease.

According to the researchers, “The decrease of median asbestos burden of the lung in mesothelioma patients results in disease manifestation at a higher age. Lung dust analyses are a relevant method for the determination of causation in mesothelioma”.

It is believed that with this research, even those patients can be identified who either have forgotten about the exposure or even the ones who are not aware of it.

The findings of the study have been published in the journal Cancer Research.