Australian mesothelioma register

Our plain-English summary of Australian mesothelioma register, by D. Ferguson, T. Ng (The Medical Journal of Australia, 1980).

The study

• Authors: D. Ferguson, T. Ng
• Journal: The Medical Journal of Australia
• Published: 1980;1(4):150-2
• Cited by: 4 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. 002165).

In plain English

This article described the planned Australian Mesothelioma Register at the stage when its procedures had been developed and it was about to go on trial. It reported no case data or findings. The authors listed the register's original objects: standardizing how pathologists diagnose mesothelioma through a reference panel, adding to demographic and epidemiological knowledge, tracking trends in incidence, establishing the dose effect relationship, and working with other registers. Any source could notify cases, and cases were to be registered if definite or probable. A trained interviewer was to take an exposure history covering occupational, domestic, neighbourhood and recreational contacts, grading exposure without trying to quantify it. The method was to be tested on recent and new cases. The New South Wales Dust Diseases Board contributed up to $12000, which allowed a lung fibre counting method to be developed and tried. The authors stated that the register could not be population based because it was voluntary, and that a register alone could not establish a dose-effect relationship. They concluded it would need ongoing financial support.

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: Descriptive article (special article) outlining the aims, organization and procedures of a planned national mesothelioma register; no data were analysed
• Who was studied: Future and recent cases of mesothelioma in Australia, to be notified voluntarily from any source. Only definite and probable cases were to be registered. Tasmania was to take part through Victoria, and New Zealand had expressed interest in participating.
• Exposure: Exposure to environmental agents, not only asbestos, recorded through an exposure history covering occupational, domestic, neighbourhood and recreational contacts, together with lung tissue fibre content
• Main results:
  • No case results were reported. The article listed five original objects of the register, including to establish the dose effect relationship.
  • The authors reported that the histopathology reference panel was already having some effect towards the first object, standardizing histological diagnosis.
  • The exposure history method was to be tested on recent cases and on new cases notified in the following months.
  • The New South Wales Dust Diseases Board contributed up to $12000.
  • This contribution allowed development and trial of a lung fibre counting method.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that the register would need ongoing financial support if its scope was not to be severely restricted.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The register cannot be population based because it is voluntary and national.
  • A register alone cannot establish a dose-effect relationship.
  • No fully successful exposure history-taking models exist, because recall is unreliable and records are inadequate.
  • Historical exposure was to be graded but not quantified.

Topics

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

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

Related studies

• Records of the Australian Mesothelioma Surveillance Program have been lost! — M. Hendrickx (2008)
• Malignant mesothelioma in construction workers: the Apulia regional mesothelioma register, Southern Italy — L. Vimercati, D. Cavone, et al. (2019)
• Malignant mesothelioma in Australia, 1945-2002 — J. Leigh, T. Driscoll (2003)
• Survival of malignant pleural mesothelioma cases in the Tuscan Mesothelioma Register, 1988-2000: a population-based study — G. Gorini, G. De Gregorio, et al. (2005)
• Asbestos exposure and malignant mesothelioma of the tunica vaginalis testis: a systematic review and the experience of the Apulia (southern Italy) mesothelioma register — L. Vimercati, D. Cavone, et al. (2019)
• French mesothelioma register — J. Bignon, P. Sebastien, et al. (1979)

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