Radiation-Induced Peritoneal Mesothelioma

Our plain-English summary of Radiation-Induced Peritoneal Mesothelioma, by T.L. Babcock, D.H. Powell, R.S. Bothwell (1976).

The study

• Authors: T.L. Babcock, D.H. Powell, R.S. Bothwell
• Published: Journal Of Surgical Oncology 8(5):369-372 (1976)
• Type of article: Journal article
• Our copy: from Johns-Manville's own medical library, J-M no. 001106. The article is still under copyright, so we describe it here rather than post it.

In plain English

This article was a case report of one patient, written by surgeons at Letterman Army Medical Center in San Francisco. The patient was a 55-year-old woman, a housewife, who received internal radium treatment and external radiotherapy in 1967 for stage I cancer of the cervix. In June 1974 she came to the emergency room with a partial bowel obstruction. At surgery the blocked part of the bowel looked like radiation damage, but laboratory examination of the removed tissue showed peritoneal mesothelioma. Four months later she had mesothelioma spread through the abdomen. She was treated with a palliative operation and the drug procarbazine, and she died 7 months after the first diagnosis. Her family declined an autopsy. When questioned carefully, she denied any history compatible with asbestos exposure. The authors wrote that they found no earlier description of mesothelioma caused by radiotherapy, and the article's title calls her tumor radiation-induced. As a single case report, it describes what happened to one person and gives no estimate of how often mesothelioma follows radiotherapy. The mesothelioma incidence figures in its discussion are cited from another source.

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 (one patient)
• Who was studied: One 55-year-old white female housewife treated at Letterman Army Medical Center, San Francisco, California. Her radiation treatment was in 1967 and her mesothelioma was diagnosed in 1974.
• Exposure: Internal radiation (radium applicators) and external radiotherapy in 1967 for stage I carcinoma of the cervix. The combined total dose was 7,770 rad to the cervix, 8,860 rad to point A and 4,520 rad to point B. She denied any history compatible with asbestos exposure.
• Main results:
  • In June 1974, about 7 years after radiation, the patient presented with symptoms of a partial bowel obstruction.
  • At surgery the lesion looked like radiation enteritis, but pathologic examination of the removed specimen showed mesothelioma.
  • When she returned four months after diagnosis, a second operation found diffuse intraperitoneal mesothelioma.
  • Despite chemotherapy with procarbazine, she died 7 months after the initial diagnosis, of diffuse peritoneal metastases.
  • The family declined an autopsy.
  • On careful questioning, the patient denied any history compatible with asbestos exposure.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors stated that they found no previous description of mesothelioma being induced by radiotherapy. The article's title describes this patient's tumor as radiation-induced peritoneal mesothelioma.

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Peritoneal Mesothelioma, Partial Bowel Obstruction, Mesothelioma, Palliative Care, Autopsy, Asbestos Exposure.

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