Desmoplastic mesothelioma

Our plain-English summary of Desmoplastic mesothelioma, by J.S. Thomas, R.A. Burnett (Thorax, 1988).

The study

• Authors: J.S. Thomas, R.A. Burnett
• Journal: Thorax
• Published: 1988;43(7):584
• Type of article: Letter
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

In plain English

This was a letter to the editor of Thorax from two pathologists at the University of Glasgow. They were responding to a short report by Dr T Machin and colleagues, which had described desmoplastic mesothelioma as a variant of the sarcomatous type of mesothelioma. The authors disagreed. They reported that they had recently completed a necropsy (autopsy) study of 40 pleural mesotheliomas from Glasgow shipyard workers. In that study, desmoplastic areas occurred as frequently in otherwise pure epithelial tumours as in sarcomatous tumours. The letter gave no further figures from that study and did not describe the workers' exposures. The authors argued that biopsy specimens alone are not adequate sampling for subclassifying a tumour known to vary from area to area. They also said Machin and colleagues had misrepresented an earlier autopsy study by Adams and Unni, which, according to the authors, noted epithelial elements in two of its five desmoplastic tumours. The authors concluded that desmoplasia in itself gives no indication of what other areas of the tumour look like. A reply from Machin and colleagues is printed with the letter.

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 (correspondence) responding to a published short report; it briefly cites the authors' own recently completed necropsy study
• Who was studied: 40 pleural mesotheliomas examined at necropsy, from Glasgow shipyard workers (dates and other details not given)
• Exposure: Not described. The cases came from Glasgow shipyard workers, but the letter does not mention asbestos, fiber types, or exposure details
• Main results:
  • In the authors' necropsy study of 40 pleural mesotheliomas, desmoplastic areas occurred as frequently in otherwise pure epithelial tumours as in sarcomatous tumours (no counts given)
  • The authors argued that biopsy specimens alone are not adequate sampling for accurately subclassifying a tumour known for its histological heterogeneity
  • The authors' account of another study, not their own findings: they stated that Adams and Unni noted epithelial elements in two of their five desmoplastic tumours, and that Machin and colleagues had misrepresented that study
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that desmoplasia in itself gives no indication of the histological appearance of other areas of the mesothelioma

Topics

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

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

Related studies

• Bony metastases in desmoplastic pleural mesothelioma — T. Machin, E.T. Mashiyama, et al. (1988)
• Desmoplastic malignant mesothelioma of the pleura: autopsy reveals asbestos exposure — R. Ishikawa, E. Kikuchi, et al. (2003)
• BAP1 Immunohistochemistry and p16 FISH in the Diagnosis of Sarcomatous and Desmoplastic Mesotheliomas — H.C. Hwang, S. Pyott, et al. (2016)
• The diagnosis of desmoplastic malignant mesothelioma and its distinction from fibrous pleurisy: a histologic and immunohistochemical analysis of 31 cases including p53 immunostaining — W.E. Mangano, P.T. Cagle, et al. (1998)
• GATA3 Immunohistochemistry for Distinguishing Sarcomatoid and Desmoplastic Mesothelioma From Sarcomatoid Carcinoma of the Lung — K.B. Berg, A. Churg (2017)
• Keratin and epithelial membrane antigen immunoreactivity in nonneoplastic fibrous pleural lesions: implications for the diagnosis of desmoplastic mesothelioma — J.I. Epstein, R.E. Budin (1986)

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