Asbestos exposure and pleural mesotheliomas

Our plain-English summary of Asbestos exposure and pleural mesotheliomas, by R.H. Mortimer, C.B. Campbell (The Medical Journal of Australia, 1968).

The study

• Authors: R.H. Mortimer, C.B. Campbell
• Journal: The Medical Journal of Australia
• Published: 1968;2(17):720-2
• Cited by: 10 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. 001454).

Abstract

Diffuse pleural mesothelioma is reported in two patients exposed to asbestos dust. The neoplasms were dissimilar in macroscopic and histological appearances. The criteria for classification as mesotheliomas are described. Asbestos bodies were found in the lungs of both patients, but minimal interstitial fibrosis was present. The significance of this finding, with particular reference to the development of neoplasia, is discussed.

PubMed has no abstract for this study. This is the authors' abstract, copied from the article.

In plain English

This 1968 article from Brisbane, Australia, reported two cases. It was not a study of how often disease occurs. Both patients were men with diffuse pleural mesothelioma who had been exposed to asbestos dust. The article did not name the asbestos fiber type. The first man, aged 62, had worked as a shipwright in an English dockyard from 1920 to 1940, using asbestos lagging for about one month a year. The second, aged 47, had worked since 1952 in an asbestos cement factory. Both men died. At necropsy (autopsy), a tumour encased the lung in each man, but the two tumours looked different. The first was dense and fibrous. The second was a mixed type that had spread to the peritoneum, liver, left adrenal gland and right lung. Asbestos bodies were found in the lungs of both men. Neither had significant asbestosis. The time from first exposure to lung symptoms was 46 and 13 years. The authors concluded the tumours could be classified as diffuse mesotheliomas.

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 of two patients (clinical history and necropsy findings)
• Who was studied: Two men with pleural mesothelioma seen in Queensland, Australia: a 62-year-old man admitted to Chermside Hospital in 1966, and a 47-year-old man admitted to the Royal Brisbane Hospital in November 1965
• Exposure: Case 1: shipwright in an English dockyard, 1920 to 1940, using asbestos lagging for insulating steam pipes and boilers for about one month a year. Case 2: worked from 1952 in an asbestos cement factory, handling sheets of the finished product and occasionally opening bags of asbestos fibre. Fiber type not stated.
• Main results:
  • Case 2's work: from 1952 in an asbestos cement factory, with no known asbestos exposure before this
  • Case 1: at necropsy, dense white rubbery tissue encased the right lung
  • Case 1: no bronchial carcinoma was found in the lungs
  • Case 1: asbestos bodies were found in the lung and in parts of the fibrous tissue
  • Case 2: the tumour encasing the lung was a mixed type of mesothelioma
  • Case 2: the tumour had spread to the parietal and visceral peritoneum, the liver, the left adrenal gland and the right lung
  • Case 2: asbestos bodies were common in the lungs and the tumour, but were not found in the metastases
  • In the authors' judgement, neither man's exposure to asbestos dust was very severe, and neither had significant asbestosis
  • The time from first asbestos exposure to the start of lung symptoms was 46 years in Case 1 and 13 years in Case 2
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that the two lesions were neoplasms distinct from other malignant tumours and could be classified as diffuse mesotheliomas. They wrote that their findings supported an earlier suggestion by Jacob and Anspach that pleural tumours may be increased in people with relatively little asbestos exposure.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • A tissue test said to be characteristic of pleural mesothelioma (acid mucopolysaccharides removable with hyaluronidase) was negative in both cases. The authors suggested this was possibly because the tissue had been fixed in aqueous formalin.

Topics

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

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Asbestos Exposure, Pleural Mesothelioma, Neoplasm, Mesothelioma, Asbestos Bodies, Interstitial Fibrosis.

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