Lung Cancer Among Asbestos Insulation Workers

Our plain-English summary of Lung Cancer Among Asbestos Insulation Workers, by I.J. Selikoff, J. Churg (1968).

The study

• Authors: I.J. Selikoff, J. Churg
• Published: 1968
• Type of article: Abstract
• Our copy: from Johns-Manville's own medical library. The article is still under copyright, so we describe it here rather than post it.

In plain English

This is a short meeting abstract, printed among other American Thoracic Society abstracts. It reports clinical, epidemiologic and pathologic findings on bronchogenic carcinoma (lung cancer) in asbestos workers. The authors followed 632 asbestos insulation workers prospectively from January 1, 1943, to December 31 of a year the scanned text prints as "1067". The year is damaged in the scan. During this period there were 338 deaths among these workers. Seventy-two of the deaths were due to cancer of the lung or pleura. The abstract describes this as approximately eight times the expected incidence. It says the epidemiologic data were reviewed for time since onset of exposure, total exposure, smoking habits, and the comparative incidence of bronchogenic carcinoma and pleural mesothelioma, but it gives no results for these. A case series, described as the largest so recorded, was analyzed for features such as lower lobe location, cell type, peripheral location, relation to severity of asbestosis and pleural involvement. The number of cases cannot be read in the scan, and the abstract gives no figures for these features. Fiber types are not named.

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.

What the study did and found

• Design: Meeting abstract describing a prospective follow-up of a group of asbestos insulation workers, plus an analysis of a series of lung cancer cases
• Who was studied: 632 asbestos insulation workers (location not stated in the abstract) followed from January 1, 1943, to December 31 of a year printed as "1067" in the scan
• Exposure: Work as asbestos insulation workers. No fiber type, product or dose is given in the abstract.
• Main results:
  • Among the 632 insulation workers there were 338 deaths during follow-up
  • 72 of the deaths among the insulation workers were due to cancer of the lung or pleura, approximately eight times the expected incidence

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Lung Cancer, Insulator, Bronchogenic Carcinoma, Pleura, Habit, Pleural Mesothelioma.

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