Asbestos exposure and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma

Our plain-English summary of Asbestos exposure and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, by H. Olsson, L. Brandt (Lancet, 1983).

The study

• Authors: H. Olsson, L. Brandt
• Journal: Lancet
• Published: 1983;1(8324):588
• Type of article: Letter
• Cited by: 8 articles, 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. 001735).

Summary of the article

In this letter, the authors responded to a case-control study by Ross and colleagues that had reported a relation between asbestos exposure and histiocytic lymphomas primary to the oral cavity and gastrointestinal tract. Using a standardised questionnaire and personal interviews, the authors had obtained occupational histories from school age to diagnosis for a consecutive series of 169 men with recently diagnosed non-Hodgkin's lymphoma admitted to their hospital in Lund, southern Sweden, in 1979-82. Lymphomas were classified according to Rappaport, and all patients were clinically staged. Eleven patients had histiocytic lymphoma in the oral cavity or gastrointestinal tract without signs of systemic disease, and six more had such lymphomas there and at other sites. The authors stated that none of these 17 had been occupationally exposed to asbestos for 6 months or more. They reported that 3 of the 11 (27%) with lymphoma primary to these sites may have been exposed to asbestos in some prior occupation. This compared with 7 of 39 (18%) with histiocytic lymphoma presenting elsewhere, a difference that was not significant (p>0.30). The authors concluded that their data did not support the reported relation. They suggested that the discrepancy might reflect differing exposure criteria or regional differences in environmental hazards between Los Angeles and southern Sweden, and called for further epidemiological studies in various parts of the world.

PubMed has no abstract for this study, and the article doesn't print one. We wrote this summary from the full article with the help of AI. It is not the authors' wording.

In plain English

This was a letter to the editor from the Department of Oncology, University Hospital, Lund, Sweden. It responded to a case-control study by Ross and colleagues reporting a relation between asbestos exposure and histiocytic lymphomas primary to the oral cavity and gastrointestinal tract. The authors used a standardised questionnaire and personal interviews to record all jobs, from school age to diagnosis, of 169 consecutive men recently diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma at their hospital in 1979-82. Of these men, 17 had histiocytic lymphoma in the oral cavity or gastrointestinal tract, 11 of them without signs of systemic disease. None of the 17 had been occupationally exposed to asbestos for 6 months or more. Of the 11, 3 (27%) may have had asbestos exposure in some prior job. Among 39 patients with histiocytic lymphoma at other sites, 7 (18%) reported such jobs. The authors reported this difference as not statistically significant. The authors concluded that their data did not support the relation. They noted that criteria for heavy exposure may have differed, and that asbestos may be an uncommon risk factor in Sweden.

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 reporting occupational histories from a consecutive hospital series of patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, with comparison between lymphoma sites (no non-lymphoma control group described)
• Who was studied: 169 men with a recent diagnosis of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma admitted to the authors' hospital (University Hospital, Lund, southern Sweden) in 1979-82
• Exposure: Occupational asbestos exposure, judged from lifetime job histories recorded from school age to diagnosis. No fiber types were named.
• Main results:
  • Of the 169 patients, 11 had histiocytic lymphoma in the oral cavity or gastrointestinal tract without signs of systemic disease, and 6 more had it in these sites and at other sites. None of these 17 had been occupationally exposed to asbestos for 6 months or more.
  • 3 of the 11 patients (27%) with histiocytic lymphoma primary to the oral cavity or gastrointestinal tract may have been exposed to asbestos in some prior occupation.
  • Among 39 patients with histiocytic lymphoma at sites not associated with the oral cavity or gastrointestinal tract, 7 (18%) reported occupations likely to involve some asbestos exposure.
  • Exposure in the oral cavity or gastrointestinal tract group did not differ significantly from exposure in patients with histiocytic lymphoma presenting elsewhere.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that their data did not support a relation between asbestos exposure and histiocytic lymphoma presenting in the oral cavity or gastrointestinal tract. They suggested the difference from Ross et al. may reflect regional differences between Los Angeles and southern Sweden, with asbestos possibly an uncommon risk factor in Sweden.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • Criteria for heavy exposure may have differed from those used by Ross et al.
  • Environmental hazards may differ by region, so asbestos may be an uncommon risk factor in Sweden while other agents are more prevalent.

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Asbestos Exposure, Case-Control Study.

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