Comments on Vimercati et al., 2019, "Asbestos exposure and malignant mesothelioma of the tunica vaginalis testis: a systematic review and the experience of the Apulia (southern Italy) mesothelioma register"

Our plain-English summary of Comments on Vimercati et al., 2019, "Asbestos exposure and malignant mesothelioma of the tunica vaginalis testis: a systematic review and the experience of the Apulia (southern Italy) mesothelioma register", by G. Mezei, E.T. Chang, F.S. Mowat, et al (Environmental Health, 2019).

The study

• Authors: G. Mezei, E.T. Chang, F.S. Mowat, S.H. Moolgavkar
• Journal: Environmental Health
• Published: 2019;18(1):111
• Type of article: Letter
• Cited by: 1 article, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

In plain English

This is a letter to the editor, not a new study. The authors responded to a 2019 review by Vimercati and colleagues of case series and case reports on malignant mesothelioma of the tunica vaginalis testis (MMTVT), a mesothelioma of the lining around the testis. That review had called asbestos the only established cause. Drawing on their own earlier review and other published work, the authors argued three points. No MMTVT cases had been reported in large occupational cohorts with heavy asbestos exposure. U.S. registry rates of MMTVT did not show time or geographic trends matching asbestos use. An Italian national register study did not report MMTVT cases in some of the highest-risk industries. They also noted that the 2012 IARC asbestos monograph does not mention MMTVT. They acknowledged that no analytical studies, such as case-control studies, have tested the question. The authors concluded that the available epidemiology provides no evidence that inhaled asbestos exposure is a risk factor for MMTVT.

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 commenting on a published review; no new data
• Who was studied: No study population. The letter discusses a published review of case series and case reports on MMTVT.
• Exposure: inhaled asbestos exposure in general; no specific fiber types are discussed
• Main results:
  • The authors stated that no MMTVT cases have been reported in large occupational cohorts with heavy workplace asbestos exposure. They cited another study for this point.
  • The authors stated that U.S. registry-based MMTVT incidence rates do not show time or geographic trends corresponding to trends in commercial asbestos use. This is based on their own earlier review and another study.
  • The authors stated that an Italian National Mesothelioma Register study did not report MMTVT cases in some of the highest-risk industries, such as asbestos cement, national defense, shipbuilding and railway.
  • The authors stated that the 2012 IARC monograph on asbestos does not mention MMTVT. The 1987 version mentions it, but the three references it cites are case reports.
  • The authors stated that their earlier review found a substantial proportion of published MMTVT cases had no documented asbestos exposure.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that the available epidemiology provides no evidence that inhaled asbestos exposure is a risk factor for MMTVT. They also concluded that Vimercati et al. provide no evidence to the contrary.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The authors acknowledged that there are no analytical epidemiologic studies, including case-control studies, testing whether asbestos causes MMTVT.

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Asbestos Exposure, Malignant Mesothelioma, Tunica Vaginalis, Systematic Review, Mesothelioma.

Related studies

• Response to the "Letter to the Editor" by Gabor Mezei et al., Comments on Vimercati et al., 2019, "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)
• 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)
• Comments on a recent case-control study of malignant mesothelioma of the pericardium and the tunica vaginalis testis — G. Mezei, E.T. Chang, et al. (2021)
• Malignant mesothelioma in construction workers: the Apulia regional mesothelioma register, Southern Italy — L. Vimercati, D. Cavone, et al. (2019)
• Epidemiology of mesothelioma of the pericardium and tunica vaginalis testis — G. Mezei, E.T. Chang, et al. (2017)
• Authors' response: Mezei et al's "Comments on a recent case-control study of malignant mesothelioma of the pericardium and the tunica vaginalis testis" — A. Marinaccio, D. Consonni, et al. (2021)

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