Malignant pleural mesothelioma five years after domestic exposure to blue asbestos

Our plain-English summary of Malignant pleural mesothelioma five years after domestic exposure to blue asbestos, by S.J. Booth, E.J. Weaver (Lancet, 1986).

The study

• Authors: S.J. Booth, E.J. Weaver
• Journal: Lancet
• Published: 1986;1(8478):435
• Type of article: Case report, Letter
• Cited by: 7 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. 000376).

Summary of the article

In this letter, the authors reported the case of a 28-year-old man with advanced malignant pleural mesothelioma, seen at the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, London Hospital. They noted that the latent period between asbestos exposure and mesothelioma is usually said to be 20-60 years (average 35-40 years). The man presented with a 1-year history of weight loss, with 6 months of night sweats and general malaise. His erythrocyte sedimentation rate was 128 mm/h. Chest X-ray and computerised tomography showed multiple pleural nodules. Five years earlier, while renovating his house, he had knocked down a wall partition packed with blue asbestos. He had been heavily exposed to the dust over a 72-hour period and had not worn a face mask. A pleuropneumonectomy was performed. The tumour showed focal cellular positivity for cytokeratin, negative immunoperoxidase staining for carcinoembryonic antigen, cytoplasmic tonofilaments and poorly formed microvilli. These features supported a diagnosis of malignant mesothelioma of the mixed type, containing both spindle and pleomorphic cells. The patient died before external beam radiotherapy could be started, and no necropsy was done. The authors believed this to be the youngest reported case. They considered there was sufficient evidence to suggest that the tumour was initiated by the short period of domestic blue asbestos exposure. They concluded that the case highlighted the need for extreme care during exposure to dust environments.

PubMed has no abstract for this study, and the article doesn't print one. We wrote this summary from the full article with the help of AI. It is not the authors' wording.

In plain English

This letter to the editor, from two authors in the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the London Hospital, was a case report about one patient, a 28-year-old man. He had a 1-year history of weight loss and 6 months of night sweats and general malaise, and was found to have advanced malignant pleural mesothelioma. A chest X-ray and computerised tomography showed multiple pleural nodules. Five years earlier, while renovating his house, he had knocked down a wall partition packed with blue asbestos. Over a 72-hour period he had been heavily exposed to the dust without wearing a face mask. Surgeons removed the tumour by pleuropneumonectomy, and tissue tests supported a diagnosis of malignant mesothelioma of the mixed type, containing both spindle and pleomorphic cells. The patient died before radiotherapy could start, and no necropsy (autopsy) was done. The authors believed this to be the youngest reported case. They concluded there was sufficient evidence to suggest the tumour was initiated by this short period of domestic exposure. The report describes one person and gives no rate of disease.

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 (letter to the editor)
• Who was studied: One 28-year-old man. The authors were from the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, London Hospital, London. The article does not state where the patient was treated.
• Exposure: Brief domestic exposure to blue asbestos. Five years before presenting, the man knocked down a wall partition packed with blue asbestos while renovating his house. He was heavily exposed to the dust over a 72-hour period and did not wear a face mask.
• Main results:
  • The patient presented with advanced pleural mesothelioma 5 years after knocking down the wall during house renovation.
  • Chest X-ray, and also computerised tomography, showed multiple pleural nodules.
  • After pleuropneumonectomy, the tumour was diagnosed as malignant mesothelioma of the mixed type, containing both spindle and pleomorphic cells.
  • The patient died before external beam radiotherapy could be started. No necropsy was done.
  • The authors believed this to be the youngest reported case of malignant pleural mesothelioma.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors believed there was sufficient evidence in this case to suggest that the tumour was initiated by a short period of domestic blue asbestos exposure. They described the case as remarkable for the short time between exposure and presentation and for the brief, domestic exposure.

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, Crocidolite, Asbestos Exposure, Mesothelioma, Chest X-Ray, Carcinoembryonic Antigen (CEA), Malignant Mesothelioma, Pleomorphic.

Related studies

• Malignant mesothelioma in Metsovo, Greece, from domestic use of asbestos: 30 years later — A. Gogali, C. Manda-Stachouli, et al. (2012)
• Cancer incidence among firefighters: 45 years of follow-up in five Nordic countries — E. Pukkala, J.I. Martinsen, et al. (2014)
• A survey of occupational cancer in the rubber and cablemaking industries: results of five-year analysis, 1967-71 — A.J. Fox, D.C. Lindars, et al. (1974)
• Twenty-five years of fiber analysis: what have we learned? — V.L. Roggli, R.T. Vollmer (2008)
• Five years update on relationships between malignant pleural mesothelioma and exposure to asbestos and other elongated mineral particles — P. Andujar, A. Lacourt, et al. (2016)
• Increased mortality in COPD among construction workers exposed to inorganic dust — I.A. Bergdahl, K. Torén, et al. (2004)

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