Asbestos bodies in carcinoma of colon in an insulation worker with asbestosis

Our plain-English summary of Asbestos bodies in carcinoma of colon in an insulation worker with asbestosis, by A. Ehrlich, A.N. Rohl, E.C. Holstein (JAMA, 1985).

The study

• Authors: A. Ehrlich, A.N. Rohl, E.C. Holstein
• Journal: JAMA
• Published: 1985;254(20):2932-3
• Type of article: Case report
• Cited by: 20 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed
• In J-M's library: Johns-Manville's company medical library held a copy (J-M no. 000471).

In plain English

This case report described a 66-year-old asbestos insulator who had worked for over 32 years putting asbestos around pipes and removing it from old pipes, and who had a clinical diagnosis of advanced asbestosis. In June 1983 part of the colon and mesentery was removed for a well-differentiated adenocarcinoma. Microscope sections showed foci of fibrosis in the bowel wall and a fibrotic peritoneum, but no asbestos bodies. Sections from five colon cancer patients without known asbestos exposure, examined as controls, showed no such fibrosis. After chemically digesting tissue, the authors counted 54 asbestos bodies in 5 grams of tumor and adjacent bowel, 30 in another 3 grams of bowel, and 28 and 34 in 3-gram and 2.8-gram mesentery samples. They reported this as an average of ten asbestos bodies per gram of wet tissue. Electron microscopy found amphibole fibers in mesentery, and all fibers analyzed were amosite. The authors concluded this was consistent with epidemiologic studies linking asbestos exposure to elevated gastrointestinal cancer risk, and called for a study of a possible causal relation.

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
• Who was studied: One 66-year-old asbestos insulator with a clinical diagnosis of advanced asbestosis who had a 20-cm segment of colon and part of the mesentery removed on June 27, 1983, for well-differentiated adenocarcinoma of the colon. Tissue sections from five colon cancer patients with no known asbestos exposure were examined as controls.
• Exposure: Over 32 years of insulation work, putting asbestos around pipes and removing asbestos from old pipes. The fibers found in the tissue were identified as amosite, an amphibole asbestos.
• Main results:
  • In the patient's resected bowel, histological sections showed foci of fibrosis in the muscularis and fibrotic replacement of fat in the serosa, and the peritoneum covering the serosa was fibrotic.
  • Asbestos bodies were not seen in the patient's histological sections.
  • In the five control colon cancer patients with no known asbestos exposure, fibrosis in the muscularis or serosa was not seen.
  • A digest of 5 grams of the patient's tumor and adjacent normal bowel revealed 54 typical asbestos bodies.
  • A second, similar 3-gram sample of the patient's digested bowel contained 30 asbestos bodies.
  • A digest of 3 grams of the patient's mesentery and serosal fat showed 28 typical asbestos bodies.
  • A second digest of 2.8 grams of the patient's mesentery showed 34 asbestos bodies.
  • The authors stated this was an average of ten asbestos bodies per gram of wet tissue.
  • Transmission electron microscopy of a 2.0-gram portion of the patient's mesentery showed many amphibole asbestos fibers. All fibers analyzed had the chemical composition of amosite.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that finding asbestos bodies in the tumor area and mesentery was consistent with epidemiologic studies associating asbestos exposure with an elevated risk of gastrointestinal cancer. They suggested the asbestos may have been biologically active and caused fibrosis in the colon. They said the case suggested the need for a study exploring a possible causal relation between asbestos bodies in the bowel and colon carcinoma.

Topics

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

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Asbestos Bodies, Carcinoma, Insulator.

Related studies

• Ferruginous (abestos) bodies and primary carcinoma of the colon — P. Rosen, A. Savino, et al. (1974)
• Squamous cell carcinoma of the colon in an asbestos worker — P.B. Goodfellow, S.R. Brown, et al. (1999)
• Colon cancer, physical activity, and occupational exposures. A case-control study — M. Fredriksson, N.O. Bengtsson, et al. (1989)
• Asbestosis, laryngeal carcinoma, and malignant peritoneal mesothelioma in an insulation worker — A. Fischbein, J.C. Luo, et al. (1991)
• Napsin A and thyroid transcription factor-1 expression in carcinomas of the lung, breast, pancreas, colon, kidney, thyroid, and malignant mesothelioma — J.A. Bishop, R. Sharma, et al. (2010)
• Esophageal carcinoma with asbestos bodies — J.P. Parmar (1992)

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