Asbestos-related familial mesothelioma

Our plain-English summary of Asbestos-related familial mesothelioma, by C. Bianchi, A. Brollo, C. Zuch (European Journal of Cancer Prevention, 1993).

The study

• Authors: C. Bianchi, A. Brollo, C. Zuch
• Journal: European Journal of Cancer Prevention
• Published: 1993;2(3):247-50
• Cited by: 11 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

Familial mesotheliomas are reported in four pairs of patients. The group includes six men and two women, aged between 44 and 84 years. A blood relation (father-son) existed in two pairs only. All the present patients had histories of exposure to asbestos; in five cases exposure had occurred in the shipyards. Familial mesothelioma could represent a useful model for investigating genetic-environmental interactions.

In plain English

This article was a report of eight cases of malignant mesothelioma occurring in four pairs of family members (six men and two women, aged 44 to 84). The cases were seen during a prospective study of mesothelioma in Monfalcone, Italy. Two pairs were blood relatives (father and son); the other two pairs were not. All eight patients had histories of asbestos exposure, and five had worked in shipyards. One man had served in the Navy as a machinist, and one had been an agent for a company supplying asbestos. Both women had domestic exposure: one had cleaned her husband's work clothes for 35 years. In one husband-and-wife pair, the asbestos body count in lung tissue was 1,000 times higher in the husband, yet their latent periods were the same. The authors suggested that, for blood relatives, a genetic susceptibility could be hypothesized, and that family factors might act together with asbestos. The authors cautioned that so few cases offer only working hypotheses.

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 (report of familial mesothelioma cases)
• Who was studied: Eight patients with malignant mesothelioma in four family pairs: six men and two women, aged 44 to 84 years. They were seen during a prospective study of mesothelioma in Monfalcone, Italy, and six lived in the Monfalcone area. Diagnosis rested on necropsy in six cases and on surgical specimens in two.
• Exposure: Asbestos exposure of all patients: shipyard work (five cases), Navy machinist work, work as an agent of an asbestos-supplying company, and domestic exposure from cleaning family members' work clothes. Fiber types were not specified.
• Main results:
  • Two of the four pairs were blood relatives (father and son).
  • Both women had domestic exposure. The wife in family 2 (case 4) had cleaned her husband's work clothes for 35 years. The woman in case 5 had also worked in the shipyard for about 7 years.
  • In family 2 (husband and wife), the asbestos body burden in lung tissue was 1,000 times higher in the husband than in the wife, but their latent periods were the same.
  • The son in family 4 had worked in a shipyard for about 1 month at age 14. The authors stated that, as an opera singer, he probably had further exposure to asbestos in theatrical settings.
  • Six of the eight cases came from a series of 92 mesotheliomas investigated at the authors' laboratory.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that a genetic susceptibility to asbestos could be hypothesized for the blood-related pairs. They suggested that family factors might co-operate with asbestos in some cases, and that familial mesothelioma could be a useful model for studying genetic-environmental interactions. They added that it might be more common than previously appreciated.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The authors stated that studying such a small number of cases can offer only working hypotheses.
  • The authors noted that the frequency of familial mesothelioma is extremely difficult to determine because reports generally lack denominators.

Topics

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

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

Related studies

• Incidence and familial risk of pleural mesothelioma in Sweden: a national cohort study — J. Ji, J. Sundquist, et al. (2016)
• Familial mesothelioma of the pleura--a report of 40 cases — C. Bianchi, A. Brollo, et al. (2004)
• Impact of an asbestos cement factory on mesothelioma incidence: global assessment of effects of occupational, familial, and environmental exposure — C. Mensi, L. Riboldi, et al. (2015)
• Genetic susceptibility to malignant mesothelioma and exposure to asbestos: the influence of the familial factor — D. Ugolini, M. Neri, et al. (2008)
• Asbestos-contaminated nappies and familial mesothelioma — F.P. Li, M.G. Dreyfus, et al. (1989)
• Familial pleural mesothelioma with environmental asbestos exposure: losses of DNA sequences by comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) — G. Serio, A. Scattone, et al. (2004)

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