Women and mesothelioma

Our plain-English summary of Women and mesothelioma, by D.D. Smith (Chest, 2002).

The study

• Author: D.D. Smith
• Journal: Chest
• Published: 2002;122(6):1885-6
• Type of article: Comment, Editorial
• Cited by: 16 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Summary of the article

In this editorial, the author commented on a study by Metintas and coworkers, published in the same issue of CHEST, which compared women and men for malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) caused by environmental amphibole asbestos exposure in Turkey. That study reported a higher risk for women than men (159.8 vs 114.8 per 100,000). An earlier study of erionite exposure in Karain Village, Turkey, had also shown a female predominance (440.9 vs 298.1 per 100,000). North American, Australian and European cohorts, by contrast, had shown a much lower risk for women. The author discussed possible explanations. One was higher exposure among women, for example from whitewashing homes and time spent at home, although Metintas and coworkers found no significant difference in exposure between the sexes. Others were the underrepresentation of women in occupational cohorts and physiologic factors such as breathing pattern, lung volume and body size affecting fiber deposition. He also discussed peritoneal mesothelioma in women and its past confusion with ovarian serous carcinoma, which he said is not a significant problem with current techniques. He described a British review of 177 cases in women, 98% with elevated amphibole fiber burden, as reflecting selection bias. He noted the 59.2-year latency, which was the same for both sexes, and evidence that latency increases with lower exposures. He suggested that longer life expectancy may reveal more mesotheliomas from low-dose amphibole exposure. He described the roles of SV40 and genetic factors as uncertain.

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 is a two-page editorial, not an original study. The author commented on a study by Metintas and coworkers, published in the same issue, of malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) caused by environmental amphibole asbestos exposure in Turkey. As the editorial describes it, that study found a higher figure for women than for men: 159.8 per 100,000 versus 114.8 per 100,000, which the editorial called the relative risk. The Metintas study also found no significant difference in exposure levels between men and women, and the same latency of 59.2 years for both sexes. The author noted that in many small Turkish villages women whitewash homes, the task linked to the highest exposures. The author also said they knew of no North American, Australian, South African or European cohort with enough equally exposed women to judge women's risk of MPM. The author suggested that body and lung size might help explain a higher risk in women and said this needs further study. The author called the idea that children may retain more fibers unproven and speculative.

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: editorial commenting on another study (no original data)
• Who was studied: No study population of its own. The editorial discusses a study by Metintas and coworkers of malignant pleural mesothelioma among people with environmental amphibole asbestos exposure in Turkish villages.
• Exposure: Environmental amphibole asbestos exposure in Turkey. The editorial notes that whitewashing homes, which in many villages is done by women, is the task associated with the highest exposure levels.
• Main results:
  • As reported in the editorial, the Metintas study found a higher figure for women than for men: 159.8 per 100,000 for women versus 114.8 per 100,000 for men. The editorial calls these figures the relative risk.
  • As reported in the editorial, the Metintas authors found no significant difference in exposure levels between men and women in their cohort.
  • As reported in the editorial, the Metintas study found the same latency for both sexes: 59.2 years.
• The authors' conclusion: The author concluded that the role of body size needs further study, but that it could explain an increased risk of mesothelioma in women.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The author stated they knew of no North American, Australian, South African or European cohort in which enough women were equally exposed to the same fiber type, at the same intensity and for long enough, to evaluate women's relative risk of MPM.
  • The author stated that the suggestion that children retain more asbestos fibers than adults at the same exposure level is unproven and only speculative.

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, Pleural Mesothelioma, Amphibole Asbestos, erionite, Karain, Deposition, Peritoneal Mesothelioma, Ovarian Serous Carcinoma.

Related studies

• The Presence of Asbestos in the Natural Environment is Likely Related to Mesothelioma in Young Individuals and Women from Southern Nevada — F. Baumann, B.J. Buck, et al. (2015)
• Women with malignant pleural mesothelioma have a threefold better survival rate than men — E. Taioli, A.S. Wolf, et al. (2014)
• Characteristics of malignant pleural mesothelioma in women — A.S. Wolf, W.G. Richards, et al. (2010)
• Occupational class, occupational mobility and cancer incidence among middle-aged men and women: a prospective study of the French GAZEL cohort* — M. Melchior, M. Goldberg, et al. (2005)
• Asbestos exposure and differences in occurrence of peritoneal mesothelioma between men and women across countries — A. Burdorf, B. Järvholm, et al. (2007)
• Malignant mesothelioma in women — A. Dawson, A.R. Gibbs, et al. (1993)

Browse more research in Chest, or return to medical research.