Asbestos and cancer of head and neck

Our plain-English summary of Asbestos and cancer of head and neck, by S. Holmes (Lancet, 1973).

The study

• Author: S. Holmes
• Journal: Lancet
• Published: 1973;1(7807):839
• Cited by: 1 article, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher
• In J-M's library: Johns-Manville's company medical library held a copy (J-M no. 002393).

In plain English

This item was a letter to the editor of The Lancet, not a research study, and it reported no new data. The author signed as Secretary of the Asbestos Research Council. The letter responded to an earlier letter by Stell and McGill, which had reported an apparent association between asbestos exposure and cancer of the head and neck. The author pointed out that the people in that small series of cases would have first been exposed to asbestos more than a quarter of a century earlier. The author stated that dockers in 1973 worked under different conditions, with raw asbestos arriving in impermeable bags on pallets that were handled mechanically. The author also stated that pipe insulation was by then mainly asbestos-free, although old asbestos lagging should be stripped with care. The author argued that the three occupational groups may have been exposed to other environmental carcinogens. In the author's view, proving cause and effect would require finding asbestos fibres at the tumour site and developing animal experiments. The author also suggested matching patients and controls for smoking, as well as for age and sex.

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 (commentary on another correspondent's letter); no original data
• Who was studied: No population was studied. The letter comments on Stell and McGill's small series of head and neck cancer cases, for which the letter gives no numbers.
• Exposure: Occupational asbestos exposure in the groups described by Stell and McGill. The letter mentions boiler scalers, pipe insulators and dockers handling raw asbestos cargoes.
• Main results:
  • The author stated (as an argument, not a study finding) that the cases in Stell and McGill's series would have had their first asbestos exposure more than a quarter of a century earlier, and that dockers in 1973 worked under different conditions.
  • The author stated that raw asbestos cargoes now arrived in impermeable bags on pallets that were handled mechanically at the docks.
  • The author stated that pipe insulation was by then mainly asbestos-free.
  • The author argued that the three occupational groups may have been exposed to other environmental carcinogens.
  • The author argued that a cause-and-effect relationship would require identifying asbestos fibres at the tumour site and developing animal experiments that replicate the findings.
  • The author recommended that patients and controls be matched for smoking habits as well as age and sex.
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that a cause-and-effect relationship between asbestos and cancers of the head and neck still needed to be proven, and said the author looked forward to the published results of a study done along the lines suggested.

Related studies

• Assessing Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes in Solid Tumors: A Practical Review for Pathologists and Proposal for a Standardized Method from the International Immuno-Oncology Biomarkers Working Group: Part 2: TILs in Melanoma, Gastrointestinal Tract Carcinomas, Non-Small Cell Lung Carcinoma and Mesothelioma, Endometrial and Ovarian Carcinomas, Squamous Cell Carcinoma of the Head and Neck, Genitourinary Carcinomas, and Primary Brain Tumors — S. Hendry, R. Salgado, et al. (2017)
• Plasma osteopontin levels in patients with head and neck cancer and cervix cancer are critically dependent on the choice of ELISA system — D. Vordermark, H.M. Said, et al. (2006)
• Is there a single spot size and grid for intensity modulated proton therapy? Simulation of head and neck, prostate and mesothelioma cases — L. Widesott, A.J. Lomax, et al. (2012)
• Occupational exposure to chlorinated solvents and risk of head and neck cancer in men: a population-based case-control study in France — C. Barul, A. Fayossé, et al. (2017)
• Epidemiology of head and neck cancer — K.J. Rothman (1978)
• Occupational dust exposure and head and neck squamous cell carcinoma risk in a population-based case-control study conducted in the greater Boston area — S.M. Langevin, M.D. McClean, et al. (2013)

Browse more research in Lancet, or return to medical research.