Diseases of the Chest (Chapter 33, Diseases of the Pleura: Diffuse Mesotheliomas) (1956)

This is a short section titled "Diffuse Mesotheliomas" from the medical textbook Diseases of the Chest; the citation gives its publication year as 1956. It is not a research study. It reports no patients, no counts and no statistics, and the page supplied does not mention asbestos or any other cause. They wrote that some pathologists regard many tumors reported as pleural as actually coming from the lung, and that many "pleural endotheliomas" are now thought to be bronchogenic. Under the microscope, they wrote, true pleural mesotheliomas can show whorls of cells like a meningioma. The authors described fluid around the lung (effusion) as the main clinical sign. They wrote that diagnosis on clinical and X-ray grounds is rarely, if ever, possible, and that thoracotomy with biopsy is the procedure of choice. They recommended removal if possible and otherwise radiotherapy. The authors wrote that these tumors are rarely recognized at a curable stage, and suggested this might change if pleural effusions were explored more often.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

From J-M's medical library

This copy comes from the Johns-Manville medical library. J-M listed it in its medical library index as no. 001844. Barry Castleman cites it in chapter 10, "Historical Research on Toxic Substances", of Asbestos: Medical and Legal Aspects (5th ed., 2005); see Reading Castleman.

We publish pages from a book for research and commentary: it shows what the medical literature in a leading asbestos company's own library said on the subject, and when. Our summary above is our own reading of it. The copyright stays with the publisher.