Malignant pleural mesothelioma caused by non-occupational childhood exposure to asbestos

Our plain-English summary of Malignant pleural mesothelioma caused by non-occupational childhood exposure to asbestos, by A. Cazzadori, F. Malesani, L. Romeo (British Journal of Industrial Medicine, 1992).

The study

• Authors: A. Cazzadori, F. Malesani, L. Romeo
• Journal: British Journal of Industrial Medicine
• Published: 1992;49(8):599
• Type of article: Case report
• Cited by: 3 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text
• In J-M's library: Johns-Manville's company medical library held a copy (J-M no. 004932).

In plain English

This was a short case report from Verona, Italy, describing one 37-year-old woman with malignant pleural mesothelioma. She went to hospital with right-sided chest pain and difficulty breathing that had lasted some months, and tests showed fluid around the right lung. Tissue taken during thoracoscopy suggested diffuse malignant mesothelioma of a mixed (biphasic) type. Her history ruled out asbestos exposure at work. It showed that from birth until age 10 she had lived in a house next to an asbestos processing factory. The article does not name the type of asbestos. Fluid washed from her lungs contained seven asbestos bodies, which the article reports as 0.3 asbestos bodies per millilitre. The authors stated that this confirmed past exposure, and that it fitted a non-occupational exposure, because other researchers had used one body per millilitre as the dividing line between people exposed at work and others. The authors concluded that the case was in accord with the hypothesis that non-occupational exposure can be related to pleural mesothelioma. They said patients should be questioned about non-occupational exposure, even if it was brief or long ago.

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 (single patient)
• Who was studied: One 37-year-old woman admitted to hospital. The authors worked in Verona, Italy. No dates are given.
• Exposure: Non-occupational exposure in childhood. She lived from birth until age 10 in a house next to an asbestos processing factory. The fiber type is not stated, and occupational exposure was excluded by her history.
• Main results:
  • The patient had right-sided chest pain and difficulty breathing for some months. Examination and x-ray were consistent with fluid around the right lung (right-sided pleural effusion).
  • Examination of thoracoscopic biopsy samples under the microscope, including special staining, suggested diffuse malignant mesothelioma of mixed pattern (epithelioid and sarcomatoid, biphasic type).
  • Her history excluded asbestos exposure at work.
  • Seven asbestos bodies were found in her bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (lung washings), equal to 0.3 asbestos bodies per millilitre, by light microscopy. The text prints this as '0-3'; the value is read as 0.3 because the article compares it with a limit of one body per millilitre.
  • The authors interpreted the 0.3 bodies per millilitre as consistent with non-occupational exposure. They based this on other authors who had used one asbestos body per millilitre as the limit separating occupationally from non-occupationally exposed persons.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that the case was in accord with the hypothesis that non-occupational exposure to asbestos can be related to malignant pleural mesothelioma. They recommended that such cases be investigated for non-occupational as well as occupational exposure, even if the exposure was brief or remote.

Topics

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

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

Related studies

• Malignant mesothelioma caused by childhood exposure to long-fiber low aspect ratio tremolite — F. Magee, J.L. Wright, et al. (1986)
• Atrioventricular block in childhood caused by mesothelioma — I.M. Hellemans, N.M. van Hemel, et al. (1981)
• Pulmonary abnormalities as a result of exposure to Libby amphibole during childhood and adolescence-The Pre-Adult Latency Study (PALS) — J. Szeinuk, C.W. Noonan, et al. (2017)
• Mesothelioma in a worker who spun chrysotile asbestos at home during childhood — E. Yano, Z.M. Wang, et al. (2009)
• Childhood exposure to Libby amphibole during outdoor activities — P.H. Ryan, G.K. LeMasters, et al. (2015)
• Childhood exposure to Libby amphibole asbestos and respiratory health in young adults — P.H. Ryan, C.H. Rice, et al. (2017)

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