Asbestos bodies in peritoneum

Our plain-English summary of Asbestos bodies in peritoneum, by B. Castleman (The New England Journal of Medicine, 1968).

The study

• Author: B. Castleman
• Journal: The New England Journal of Medicine
• Published: 1968;278(11):630
• Read it: PubMed

In plain English

This item is not a research study but an exchange of letters to the editor. The first letter, from Harold Levine of Cook County Hospital in Chicago, responded to a Massachusetts General Hospital case record in which Dr. Castleman had answered "No" when asked whether asbestos bodies are present in the peritoneal cavity in primary mesothelioma of the peritoneum. The letter pointed to a previously published case by Levine and M. E. Rubnitz in which asbestos bodies were found in the peritoneal cavity along with a peritoneal mesothelioma. It added that Rubnitz's staff were running experiments on how asbestos fibers reach the peritoneal cavity. In reply, Castleman, the cited author, wrote that no asbestos bodies had been observed in the peritoneum in the peritoneal mesothelial tumors seen at Massachusetts General Hospital, but that finding some was not unexpected. The reply cited other reports, including one that found asbestos fibers in seven of 21 peritoneal mesotheliomas only when the tissues were incinerated. The reply concluded that, compared with the lung tissue of patients who have mesothelial tumors, identifying these bodies in the peritoneum is a rarity. No fiber types were named.

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: Correspondence: a letter to the editor (Harold Levine) and a reply (Benjamin Castleman); not an original study
• Who was studied: No study population. The letter refers to one previously published case of peritoneal mesothelioma (Levine and Rubnitz). The reply refers to cases of peritoneal mesothelial tumors seen at Massachusetts General Hospital, with no number given.
• Exposure: Asbestos bodies and asbestos fibers found in the peritoneum or in tumors. No fiber type, product or occupation is named.
• Main results:
  • Letter (Levine): in a previously reported case, asbestos bodies were found in the peritoneal cavity in association with a peritoneal mesothelioma.
  • Reply (Castleman): in the cases of peritoneal mesothelial tumors seen at Massachusetts General Hospital, no asbestos bodies were observed in the peritoneum.
  • Reply, citing another author's report (not this item's own finding): asbestos fibers were found in seven of 21 peritoneal mesotheliomas only when the tissues were incinerated. A similar percentage of pleural mesothelial tumors also contained asbestos fibers.
• The authors' conclusion: Castleman wrote that finding some asbestos bodies in the peritoneum is not unexpected. He added that, compared with identifying asbestos bodies in the lung parenchyma of patients who have mesothelial tumors, identifying these bodies in the peritoneum is a rarity.

Topics

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

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

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• Aberrant Pax-8 expression in well-differentiated papillary mesothelioma and malignant mesothelioma of the peritoneum: a clinicopathologic study — D. Xing, N. Banet, et al. (2018)
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