The rising epidemic of malignant mesothelioma

Our plain-English summary of The rising epidemic of malignant mesothelioma, by K.B. Orr (The Medical Journal of Australia, 1989).

The study

• Author: K.B. Orr
• Journal: The Medical Journal of Australia
• Published: 1989;150(10):607
• Type of article: Comment, Letter
• Read it: PubMed
• In J-M's library: Johns-Manville's company medical library held a copy (J-M no. 000141).

In plain English

This item was a letter to the editor, not a research study, followed by a reply. The letter's author disputed a statement in Ferguson's leading article that mesothelioma was not linked with asbestos exposure until 1960, calling it not quite correct. The author noted first-century accounts of lung disease in asbestos weavers and a 1949 report of excessive cancer of the lung and pleura among people dying of asbestosis. The author also recalled seeing two patients in 1958 at the Essex County Hospital in Colchester: one with pleural mesothelioma known to have been caused by asbestosis, and one with peritoneal mesothelioma of unknown association. In reply, Ferguson agreed the association had been observed before Wagner and colleagues' 1960 paper, which drew world attention to the link between asbestos, particularly blue asbestos (crocidolite), and mesothelioma. As printed, the reply said asbestos (the letter had named asbestosis) was a feature in only a small minority of the reply author's over 1400 cases. The reply said this confirmed Wagner's original observations that brief and paraoccupational exposure were common in this disease.

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: Letter to the editor (correspondence) commenting on a leading article, with a reply from that article's author; includes a personal recollection of two patients
• Who was studied: Two patients the letter's author saw in 1958 at the Essex County Hospital, Colchester. The reply refers to the reply author's own over 1400 mesothelioma cases without describing them further.
• Exposure: Asbestos exposure and asbestosis. The reply refers particularly to blue asbestos (crocidolite) in the 1960 Wagner paper, and to brief and paraoccupational exposure.
• Main results:
  • The letter's author disputed the leading article's statement that mesothelioma was not linked with asbestos exposure until 1960.
  • The letter cited a 1949 report describing excessive cancer of the lung and pleura among individuals dying of asbestosis.
  • In 1958 the letter's author saw one patient with malignant mesothelioma of the pleura known to have been caused by asbestosis.
  • In the same year the letter's author saw another patient with mesothelioma of the peritoneum of unknown association.
  • The reply agreed that the association between asbestos exposure and mesothelioma had been observed before Wagner and colleagues' 1960 paper.
  • The reply stated that pleural tumours in miners were known from the late 1940s and early 1950s, masked by tuberculosis.
  • As printed, the reply stated that asbestos, described as mentioned by the letter's author as a cause of a case, was a feature in only a small minority of the reply author's own over 1400 cases. The letter itself had named asbestosis.
  • The reply stated that this confirmed Wagner's original observations that both brief and paraoccupational exposure are common in this disease.
• The authors' conclusion: The letter's author called the dating of the asbestos–mesothelioma link only a small error of fact that took nothing from the leading article.

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Lung cancer, Mesothelioma.

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Mesothelioma.

Related studies

• Malignant mesothelioma--the rising epidemic — D. Ferguson (1989)
• The European mesothelioma epidemic — J. Peto, A. Decarli, et al. (1999)
• The asbestos cancer epidemic — J. LaDou (2004)
• Epidemic of mesothelioma in Egypt — R.M. Gaafar, N.H. Eldin (2005)
• An outbreak of pleural mesothelioma and chronic fibrosing pleurisy in the village of Karain/Urgüp in Anatolia — Y.I. Baris, A.A. Sahin, et al. (1978)
• Environmental mesothelioma associated with tremolite asbestos: lessons from the experiences of Turkey, Greece, Corsica, New Caledonia and Cyprus — S.H. Constantopoulos (2008)

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