Synergy between asbestos and smoking on lung cancer risks

Our plain-English summary of Synergy between asbestos and smoking on lung cancer risks, by T.C. Erren, M. Jacobsen, C. Piekarski (Epidemiology, 1999).

The study

• Authors: T.C. Erren, M. Jacobsen, C. Piekarski
• Journal: Epidemiology
• Published: 1999;10(4):405-11
• Type of article: Meta-analysis
• Cited by: 123 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

We have examined data from 12 epidemiologic studies for quantitative evidence of biologic synergy between asbestos and smoking on lung cancer risks. Estimates of the effect associated with joint exposure to the two agents exceeded the sum of their separate effects in each study. We explored the variations in the strength of the synergistic effect across the studies using three indices: the ratio of the combined effects to the sum of the separate effects of smoking and asbestos (S), the relative excess risk due to interaction (RERI), and the attributable proportion of risk due to interaction (AP). The weighted average of S across all studies was 1.64 (95% confidence interval = 1.33-2.03). The attributable proportion associated with this average S was estimated as 33%, that suggests that one-third of cancer cases among smokers who were exposed to asbestos can be attributed to the synergistic behavior of the two carcinogens, as distinct from their separate effects and those attributable to other ("background") factors.

In plain English

This entry could not be summarized. The citation is for an article by Erren, Jacobsen and Piekarski titled "Synergy between asbestos and smoking on lung cancer risks," published in Epidemiology in 1999 (volume 10, issue 4). The article text supplied for this entry is a different paper from the same journal issue: a study by Klotz and Pyrch titled "Neural Tube Defects and Drinking Water Disinfection By-Products" (pages 383 to 390). That paper concerns birth defects and chemicals in drinking water in New Jersey. It does not deal with asbestos, smoking or lung cancer. Because the asbestos article's own text was not supplied, its methods, numbers and conclusions could not be checked. To avoid reporting figures that cannot be verified, no findings from the asbestos article are given here. A summary can be prepared once the correct text of the Erren, Jacobsen and Piekarski article is obtained.

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.

Topics

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

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Lung Cancer, Synergistic Effect, confidence interval.

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