Mesothelioma in childhood

Our plain-English summary of Mesothelioma in childhood, by A. Kelsey (Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, 1994).

The study

• Author: A. Kelsey
• Journal: Pediatric Hematology and Oncology
• Published: 1994;11(5):461-2
• Type of article: Review
• Cited by: 10 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Summary of the article

This short annotation, by a paediatric pathologist at the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital, United Kingdom, reviewed what was known about malignant mesothelioma in children. It accompanied a paper by Niggli and colleagues on peritoneal mesotheliomas in childhood, published in the previous issue of the journal. The author reported that the population-based Manchester Children's Tumour Registry held data on 3645 malignant tumours in children up to 15 years of age between 1954 and 1993, and that no cases of malignant mesothelioma had been registered. Citing published studies, the author noted that only 2% to 5% of malignant mesotheliomas occur in the first two decades of life. Unlike in adults, no clear causal association had been shown between childhood mesothelioma and asbestos exposure, X irradiation or isoniazid. Two hypotheses were described: that the disease develops differently in children, or that transplacental transfer of asbestos fibres or nonoccupational exposure in infancy promotes it. Most childhood cases arose in the pleura. Diagnosis was difficult, with up to 41% of childhood cases rejected by a pathology panel in one study. Prognosis was generally as poor as in adults, although well-differentiated peritoneal tumours in girls appeared to have a better outcome. The author noted reports of a WT1 gene mutation in one mesothelioma and of mesothelioma in young adults treated for Wilms' tumour, suggesting a possible germ line predisposition.

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 was a short annotation (commentary) by a paediatric pathologist at Royal Manchester Children's Hospital. Its only original data came from the population-based Manchester Children's Tumour Registry, which held records of 3645 malignant tumors in children up to age 15 between 1954 and 1993. No cases of malignant mesothelioma had been registered. The rest of the article summarized earlier published studies. Citing that work, the author wrote that, unlike in adults, there is no clear causal association between childhood mesothelioma and asbestos exposure, X irradiation, or isoniazid. The author described two hypotheses: that the disease develops differently in children, or that asbestos fibers passing through the placenta or nonoccupational exposure in infancy promotes it. The author noted that diagnosis is difficult: in one study, a panel of pathologists rejected up to 41% of childhood cases. Drawing on reports linking the Wilms' tumor gene WT1 to mesothelioma, the author suggested that a germ line (inheritable) mutation in this gene could predispose to both cancers. The article did not measure anyone's asbestos exposure.

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: annotation (short commentary) drawing on registry data and published literature
• Who was studied: Manchester Children's Tumour Registry (population based, Manchester, United Kingdom): 3645 malignant tumors in children up to age 15, 1954 to 1993
• Exposure: No exposure was studied. Citing other studies, the article discusses asbestos (including transplacental transfer of asbestos fibers and nonoccupational exposure in infancy), X irradiation and isoniazid as possible causes of childhood mesothelioma.
• Main results:
  • No cases of malignant mesothelioma were registered among the 3645 malignant tumors in children up to age 15 in the Manchester registry, 1954 to 1993.
  • Citing an earlier study (reference 1), the author stated that, unlike in adults, there is no clear causal association between childhood mesothelioma and asbestos exposure, X irradiation, or isoniazid.
  • Citing an earlier study, the author reported that a panel of pathologists rejected the diagnosis in up to 41% of childhood mesothelioma cases.
  • Citing published work, the author reported that mutations of the Wilms' tumor gene WT1 were found in one multicystic peritoneal mesothelioma but not in any of the asbestos-related mesotheliomas examined.
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that the reported findings suggest that a germ line mutation in the Wilms' tumor gene could predispose to both Wilms' tumor and 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: Mesothelioma, Malignant Mesothelioma, Peritoneal Mesothelioma, Cancer Registry, Asbestos Exposure, Pleura, Pathology, Prognosis.

Related studies

• Mesothelioma of childhood — A.E. Fraire, S. Cooper, et al. (1988)
• 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)
• Parental occupational exposure and risk of childhood central nervous system tumors: a pooled analysis of case-control studies from Germany, France, and the UK — C. Huoi, A. Olsson, et al. (2014)
• 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)
• Malignant intraperitoneal neoplasms of childhood — C.J. Chung, V. Bui, et al. (1998)

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