Carcinoma of the lung in asbestosis: report of two additional cases

Our plain-English summary of Carcinoma of the lung in asbestosis: report of two additional cases, by K.M. Lynch, H.R. Pratt-Thomas (Southern Medical Journal, 1955).

The study

• Authors: K.M. Lynch, H.R. Pratt-Thomas
• Journal: Southern Medical Journal
• Published: 1955;48(6):565-9
• Cited by: 6 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. 001871).

In plain English

This 1955 article from Charleston, South Carolina reported two men with both asbestosis and lung carcinoma. The first had worked 25 years as a labor foreman in an asbestos plant. A bronchial biopsy showed nonkeratinizing epidermoid carcinoma, and his sputum contained numerous typical asbestos bodies. He later developed paralysis of both legs; a consultant judged his distended bladder a cord bladder from cancer involving the spine. He died in July 1943. The second, a 55-year-old man employed for about 36 years, died in December 1952. At autopsy he had squamous carcinoma in both lungs, extensive fibrous thickening of the lung tissue, and numerous asbestos bodies. The authors also counted 4 lung carcinomas among 49 autopsied workers from an asbestos manufacturing plant who had asbestos deposits in their lungs (8.2 per cent). Over the same period and age range, their hospital's general rate was 1.5 per cent. No fiber type was named. The authors concluded that this and other series do not allay the suspicion of an association, and that animal experiments had not yet given conclusive evidence.

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, with an incidence figure from the authors' autopsy series of asbestosis cases
• Who was studied: Two men, both white. Case 1 had worked 25 years as a labor foreman in an asbestos plant and was treated in 1943. Case 2 was 55 years old, had been employed about 36 years (the occupation line is unreadable) and died in 1952. Both were seen at the Department of Pathology, Medical College of South Carolina, Charleston. The article also describes an autopsy series of 49 workers from an asbestos manufacturing plant who had asbestos deposits in their lungs.
• Exposure: Work in an asbestos plant (an asbestos manufacturing plant). No fiber type, product or dose is given.
• Main results:
  • Case 1: a bronchoscopic biopsy of a tumor in the left lower main stem bronchus showed nonkeratinizing epidermoid carcinoma.
  • Case 1: bronchial aspirate and sputum contained numerous typical asbestos bodies.
  • Case 1: on readmission he had paralysis of both legs from the hips downward.
  • Case 1: a urologic consultant found a markedly distended bladder and gave the opinion that it was a cord bladder due to carcinomatous involvement of the spine. He died on July 17, 1943.
  • Case 2: sputum cytology showed neoplastic cells, he received x-ray therapy, and he died on December 12, 1952.
  • Case 2 at necropsy: there was a 5 cm neoplastic mass in the hilar region of the left lung, extending into the pericardial sac, and a mass in the right upper and middle lobes.
  • Case 2 on microscopy: there was well differentiated squamous carcinoma, extensive fibrous thickening of the alveolar walls, and numerous asbestos bodies in the fibrous tissue and air spaces.
  • Autopsy series: 4 cases of lung carcinoma among 49 asbestos plant workers with asbestos deposits in their lungs, an incidence of 8.2 per cent.
  • Comparison: the general incidence of lung carcinoma in the authors' hospital service, over the same period and in the same age range, was 1.5 per cent.
  • The authors noted that their 8.2 per cent was by far the lowest among five series in the literature on this question.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that statistical inference from their series and others does not allay the suspicion of an association between asbestosis and lung carcinoma, and that animal experimentation had not yet provided conclusive evidence.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The authors state that the available evidence is not conclusive as to whether asbestosis plays a causal role in lung carcinoma.
  • The authors state that experimental proof of progression from hyperplasia to cancer is difficult to produce, and that animals do not necessarily respond as human tissue does.

Topics

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

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

Related studies

• Carcinoma and asbestosis of the lung; report of a case — T.K. Owen (1951)
• Pulmonary endpoints (lung carcinomas and asbestosis) following inhalation exposure to asbestos — B.T. Mossman, M. Lippmann, et al. (2011)
• Asbestosis and carcinoma of the lung; case report and review of the literature — J. Anderson, F.A. Campagna (1960)
• Mixed pneumoconiosis: silicosis, asbestosis, talcosis, and berylliosis — G.J. Mark, C.B. Monroe, et al. (1979)
• Squamous cell carcinoma occurring in asbestosis of the lung — R.J. Cureton (1948)
• Expression of calretinin, thrombomodulin, keratin 5, and mesothelin in lung carcinomas of different types: an immunohistochemical analysis of 596 tumors in comparison with epithelioid mesotheliomas of the pleura — M. Miettinen, M. Sarlomo-Rikala (2003)

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