Pulmonary asbestosis associated with primary carcinoma of the lung, bronchial adenomas, and adenocarcinoma of the stomach

Our plain-English summary of Pulmonary asbestosis associated with primary carcinoma of the lung, bronchial adenomas, and adenocarcinoma of the stomach, by M. Moetlischt, A. I. Rubenstone (1961).

The study

• Authors: M. Moetlischt, A. I. Rubenstone
• Published: Archives of Pathology, vol. 72 (July-December 1961); American Medical Association
• Type of article: Journal article
• 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 1961 article in Archives of Pathology was a case report about one man, a 65-year-old "plaster mixer" admitted to Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago. He had worked about 12 years in a casting company mixing dry powdered materials for casts. The article says the material contained asbestos but does not name the fiber type. He died on the third day in hospital. At autopsy the authors found chronic pulmonary asbestosis with asbestos bodies, a primary squamous-cell carcinoma of the lung containing numerous asbestos bodies, multiple pulmonary adenomas, and a primary adenocarcinoma of the stomach that had spread to the lungs and liver. Asbestos bodies were seen in the stomach lining and on its outer surface, but true asbestos bodies were not shown in the stomach tumor. Rats given the work material into the windpipe developed foreign-body granulomas with asbestos-like fibers within one week. The authors were inclined to believe the adenomas were related to asbestosis, while allowing they might be incidental. They judged the stomach cancer unlikely to be related. They noted that no chest x-ray had ever been taken and that clinical data were meager.

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: case report (single autopsy case), with a small rat experiment using the patient's work material
• Who was studied: One 65-year-old man, described in the article as a "Negro" plaster mixer, admitted to Michael Reese Hospital, Chicago
• Exposure: About 12 years working as a plaster mixer with dry powdered materials for making casts, said to contain asbestos, in dusty air; fiber type and concentration not given
• Main results:
  • At autopsy, the patient had chronic pulmonary asbestosis, with asbestos bodies in fibrotic lung tissue, granulomas and alveoli
  • A primary squamous-cell carcinoma of the lung was found, with numerous asbestos bodies inside the tumor
  • Multiple pulmonary adenomas were also found in the lungs, with occasional asbestos bodies
  • The main disease was a primary adenocarcinoma of the stomach that had spread to the lungs and severely involved the liver
  • Asbestos fibers and asbestos bodies were found in the stomach mucosa and on its serosal surface. True asbestos bodies were not shown in the stomach tumor itself, so the authors regarded the stomach cancer as an incidental finding.
  • Rats were given a saline suspension of the patient's work material into the trachea and killed after one week. They showed foreign-body granulomas in the lungs with fibers that looked like asbestos fibers; no asbestos bodies had yet formed.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors were more inclined to believe that the pulmonary adenomas were related to asbestosis. They did not consider the stomach carcinoma likely to be related to the pulmonary asbestosis.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • No chest x-ray had ever been taken, so the course of the lung disease was unknown
  • The patient was in hospital only 3 days, so clinical and laboratory data were limited
  • The concentration of asbestos in the workplace was not known
  • The adenomas may have been incidental findings
  • The lung carcinoma was small and seen only under the microscope, so its site of origin could not be determined

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Asbestosis, Carcinoma, Adenocarcinoma, Pathology, Autopsy, Asbestos Bodies, Granuloma, Stomach Cancer.

Browse return to medical research.