Asbestos and mesothelioma of the pleura \[abridged\]

Our plain-English summary of Asbestos and mesothelioma of the pleura [abridged], by M. Newhouse (Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, 1966).

The study

• Author: M. Newhouse
• Journal: Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine
• Published: 1966;59(1):60-1
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

In plain English

This meeting report described mesothelial tumour patients from a London Hospital series. The author followed up 83 patients: 41 men and 42 women. Of these, 27 had peritoneal tumours and the rest pleural tumours. Detailed occupational and residential histories were obtained for 76 patients, and 51 of them (67%) had been exposed to asbestos. Thirty-one had occupational exposure: 23 in asbestos factories and 8 as insulators or laggers. Nine had a husband or other relative who brought asbestos dust home on his clothes. Eleven had neither occupational nor domestic exposure but had lived three to twenty years within half a mile of an asbestos factory. Among 76 patients from the same hospital without mesothelioma, matched by sex and date of birth, 9 (11.8%) had been exposed. The difference was reported as highly significant. Eighteen patients had worked with crocidolite at one factory. First exposure preceded the tumour by seventeen to fifty-five years (mean thirty-eight), and exposure was often short. The authors concluded that personal factors seemed important and that whole-population studies were needed to evaluate dose-response relationships.

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 series of mesothelioma patients compared with a matched group of hospital patients without mesothelioma, reported as a contribution to a meeting discussion
• Who was studied: 83 patients with mesothelial tumours from Dr Hourihane's London Hospital series (41 men, 42 women; 27 peritoneal, the rest pleural). Detailed histories were obtained for 76. The comparison group was 76 patients from the same hospital without mesothelioma, matched by sex and date of birth.
• Exposure: Asbestos exposure: occupational (asbestos factories, insulation or lagging), domestic (dust brought home on relatives' clothes) and neighbourhood (living near an asbestos factory). The 18 patients from one factory had all worked with crocidolite.
• Main results:
  • Of the 76 mesothelioma patients with detailed histories, 51 (67%) had been exposed to asbestos
  • 31 mesothelioma patients had occupational exposure: 23 in asbestos factories and 8 as insulators or laggers
  • In 9 mesothelioma patients, a husband or other relative had worked with asbestos and brought dust home on his clothes
  • 11 mesothelioma patients had neither occupational nor domestic exposure, but each had lived for three to twenty years within half a mile of an asbestos factory
  • In the matched comparison group, 9 of 76 (11.8%) had been exposed to asbestos. The difference from the mesothelioma group was reported as highly significant.
  • Of the 18 mesothelioma patients from one factory, all of whom worked with crocidolite, 10 were in jobs scheduled under the 1931 Asbestos Regulations and 8 were in non-scheduled jobs
  • In these 18 factory patients, the interval from first exposure to the tumour ranged from seventeen to fifty-five years, with a mean of thirty-eight years
  • Exposure ranged from two months to over fifty years and was often short. Women factory workers were usually employed for about two years.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that tumours occurring after comparatively short exposures suggested personal factors were important in causing the disease. They called for studies of whole populations with known duration and type of exposure, so that dose-response relationships could be evaluated.

Topics

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

Related studies

• Asbestos and mesothelioma of the pleura [abridged] — D. O'B Hourihane (1966)
• Asbestos, carbon nanotubes and the pleural mesothelium: a review of the hypothesis regarding the role of long fibre retention in the parietal pleura, inflammation and mesothelioma — K. Donaldson, F.A. Murphy, et al. (2010)
• Pleuropneumonectomy in the management of diffuse malignant mesothelioma of the pleura. Experience with 29 patients — E.G. Butchart, T. Ashcroft, et al. (1976)
• Mesothelioma of pleura and peritoneum following exposure to asbestos in the London area — M.L. Newhouse, H. Thompson (1965)
• Diffuse malignant mesothelioma of the pleura in Ontario and Quebec: a retrospective study of 332 patients — P. Ruffie, R. Feld, et al. (1989)
• Length-dependent retention of carbon nanotubes in the pleural space of mice initiates sustained inflammation and progressive fibrosis on the parietal pleura — F.A. Murphy, C.A. Poland, et al. (2011)

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