Mesothelioma in Mongolia: case report

Our plain-English summary of Mesothelioma in Mongolia: case report, by N. Damiran, K. Davaajav, E. Erdenebayar, et al (International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, 2015).

The study

• Authors: N. Damiran, K. Davaajav, E. Erdenebayar, B. Gomboloi, A.L. Frank
• Journal: International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health
• Published: 2015;21(2):166-8
• Type of article: Case report
• Cited by: 4 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher · Free full text

Abstract

Background: More than 80% of cases of mesothelioma worldwide have a history of asbestos exposure. In Mongolia, workers in coal burning thermal power plants (TPP) have widely utilized asbestos as an insulation material.

Methods: We describe the case of a 47-year-old woman diagnosed with a malignant pleural mesothelioma. She worked in a TPP in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia for 28 years.

Results: A computer tomography (CT) scan showed a circumferential ring around her left lung, and tissues' samples had a biphasic variant of mesothelioma with epithelioid and sarcomatoid components.

Discussion: This is the first reported case of mesothelioma in Mongolia. We expect additional cases of mesothelioma, as well as other asbestos related diseases, will be identified in the future. In order to properly track asbestos related diseases in the country, we recommend the creation of an asbestos related disease registry.

In plain English

This article is a case report about one patient in Mongolia. In 2013 a 47-year-old woman was hospitalized with left-sided chest pain, cough, weakness, shortness of breath and swollen legs. She had worked for 28 years at a coal-burning thermal power plant in Ulaanbaatar. Between 1985 and 2005 she also sealed the plant's windows each fall with a mixture of raw chrysotile asbestos and water, and removed the seals each spring. She had no history of asbestos exposure before she started at the plant at age 19. A CT scan showed a covering around her whole left lung and a small area of pleural plaque on the right side. Tissue samples taken in October 2013 led to a diagnosis of malignant pleural mesothelioma. It was judged most compatible with a biphasic type, meaning it had both epithelioid and sarcomatoid parts. She was treated with chemotherapy and died of mesothelioma in 2014. The authors described this as the first reported case of mesothelioma in Mongolia. They expected more cases of asbestos-related disease and recommended a national asbestos-related disease registry.

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 (a single patient)
• Who was studied: One 47-year-old woman in Mongolia, diagnosed in 2013, who had worked for 28 years at a coal-burning thermal power plant in Ulaanbaatar
• Exposure: Raw chrysotile asbestos, which she mixed with water to seal the power plant's windows each fall (September to October). She removed the seals each spring (May to June), between 1985 and 2005.
• Main results:
  • When admitted to hospital she had left pleuritic chest pain, cough, weakness, shortness of breath, dry mouth and swollen legs.
  • She had no history of asbestos exposure before age 19, when she started working at the power plant.
  • A CT scan showed a circumferential covering around the lung tissue throughout her left lung.
  • The CT scan also showed a small area of pleural plaque in the right back of the chest.
  • Tissue samples taken in October 2013 led to a diagnosis of malignant pleural mesothelioma. On review by a member of the USA–Canadian Mesothelioma Panel, it was judged most compatible with a biphasic variant with epithelioid and sarcomatoid components.
  • She was treated with chemotherapy at the National Cancer Center of Mongolia and died from her mesothelioma in 2014.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that this is the first reported case of mesothelioma in Mongolia. They expected more cases of mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases to be identified, and recommended creating an asbestos-related disease registry.

Topics

The National Library of Medicine indexes this study under subjects our site covers: Lung cancer, Mesothelioma, Power plants and utilities.

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Mesothelioma, Asbestos Exposure, Pleural Mesothelioma, Biphasic Mesothelioma, Epithelioid, Sarcomatoid.

Related studies

• Exposure to airborne asbestos in thermal power plants in Mongolia — N. Damiran, E.K. Silbergeld, et al. (2015)
• Mongolia: Failure of Total Banning of Asbestos — N. Damiran, A.L. Frank (2023)
• Asbestos Consumption in Mongolia: 1996-2014 — N. Damiran, A. Frank (2018)
• Extrapulmonary neoplasms among asbestos-exposed power plant workers — I.G. Ron, H. Ron, et al. (1999)
• Risk of cancer among Danish utility workers--a nationwide cohort study — C. Johansen, J.H. Olsen (1998)
• Occupational respiratory cancer and exposure to asbestos: a case-control study in a cohort of workers in the electricity and gas industry — E. Imbernon, M. Goldberg, et al. (1995)

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