Malignant pleural mesothelioma in an asbestos worker

Our plain-English summary of Malignant pleural mesothelioma in an asbestos worker, by J.C. McNulty (The Medical Journal of Australia, 1962).

The study

• Author: J.C. McNulty
• Journal: The Medical Journal of Australia
• Published: 1962;49(2):953-4
• Cited by: 29 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. 001584).

Abstract

A case is reported of malignant pleural mesothelioma in an asbestos worker suffering from asbestosis and silicosis after two years' work in a blue asbestos mill 10 years previously.

PubMed has no abstract for this study. This is the authors' abstract, copied from the article.

In plain English

This 1962 article was a case report from Western Australia about one man. He had worked as a surface gold miner from 1937 to 1946 and as a mill worker in a blue asbestos (crocidolite) mine from 1948 to 1950. In December 1959 a chest X-ray showed what appeared to be a small amount of fluid on the left side of the chest. When he returned in October 1960 he had weight loss, cough, breathlessness and night sweats. A new X-ray showed extensive thickening of the lining of the left chest, and his sputum contained asbestos bodies. A biopsy was reported as malignant pleural mesothelioma. He was treated with thiotepa and died in June 1961. Autopsy confirmed pleural mesothelioma, along with asbestosis, silicosis and bronchopneumonia in the lung. The author believed this was the first pleural mesothelioma reported in an asbestos worker outside South Africa. He wrote that his short exposure supported the idea that these tumours may arise after brief exposure to crocidolite in susceptible people, and that the gap between exposure and tumour was much shorter than previously reported. He noted that the earlier gold mining may have contributed to the silicosis.

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 white male worker born in 1913, seen at a chest clinic in Western Australia from 1959 until his death in 1961
• Exposure: About two years (1948 to 1950) as a mill worker in a blue asbestos (crocidolite) mine, about 10 years before illness; earlier surface gold mining from 1937 to 1946
• Main results:
  • In December 1959 the patient's chest X-ray showed what appeared to be a small left-sided pleural effusion
  • In October 1960 the patient's chest X-ray showed extensive pleural thickening on the left side
  • Asbestos bodies were found in the patient's sputum
  • A pleural biopsy was reported as malignant pleural mesothelioma
  • The patient was treated with thiotepa and died in June 1961
  • The autopsy diagnosis was pleural mesothelioma, with asbestosis, silicosis and bronchopneumonia in the lung
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that the relatively short exposure to blue asbestos in this case supported an impression that these tumours may arise after transitory exposure to crocidolite in susceptible persons. He also wrote that the interval between exposure and tumour was much shorter than previously reported.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The author noted that the patient's earlier surface gold mining may have contributed to the silicosis found, although silicosis is rarely found in Western Australian gold miners with only 10 years' surface mining

Topics

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

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

Related studies

• Mortality from lung cancer in asbestos workers — R. Doll (1955)
• Mortality experience of insulation workers in the United States and Canada, 1943--1976 — I.J. Selikoff, E.C. Hammond, et al. (1979)
• Risk of cancer from occupational exposure to ionising radiation: retrospective cohort study of workers in France, the United Kingdom, and the United States (INWORKS) — D.B. Richardson, E. Cardis, et al. (2015)
• Mesothelioma mortality in asbestos workers: implications for models of carcinogenesis and risk assessment — J. Peto, H. Seidman, et al. (1982)
• Combined effect of asbestos exposure and smoking on mortality from lung cancer in factory workers — G. Berry, M.L. Newhouse, et al. (1972)
• Circulating rheumatoid and antinuclear factors in asbestos workers — M. Turner-Warwick, W.R. Parkes (1970)

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