Quoted from http://oem.bmj.com/content/68/Suppl_1/A59.2.abstract?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=22&RESULTFORMAT=&andorexacttitleabs=and&fulltext=mesothelioma&andorexactfulltext=and&searchid=1&usestrictdates=yes&resourcetype=HWCIT&ct

Does mesothelioma risk decline after 40 years since first exposure? A pooled analysis

Abstract

Objectives The risk of malignant mesothelioma increases proportionally to the cumulative exposure and to the 3rd or 4th power of time since first exposed to asbestos. However, little is known about the risk of mesothelioma after more than 40 years since first exposure because most epidemiological studies do not have follow-up for such long periods of time.

Methods The data from 6 cohort studies of exposed workers (3 Italian railway workers cohorts, amosite workers’ cohort, Eternit cohort, Wittenoom workers’ cohort) and two cohorts with residential exposure (Wittenoom residents and Eternit wives cohort) has been pooled. A nested case control design matched cases and controls on calendar period and age. Conditional logistic regression and fractional polynomials were used to model the relationship between time since first exposure and risk of mesothelioma.

Results The combined data consisted of 22 048 people with asbestos exposure (16 279 males, 5769 females), 649 cases of confirmed pleural mesothelioma (494 in males, 155 in females) and 142 cases of peritoneal mesothelioma (112 in males and 30 in females). Median time since first exposure was 38.2 years (IQR 26.5-46.6). Median duration of exposure was 2.61 years (IWR 0.5–15.0). The risk of pleural mesothelioma increased until 40 years since first exposure and then appeared to plateau. The peritoneal mesothelioma risk continued to increase.

Conclusions Pooling the data from these cohort studies substantially increases the number of mesotheliomas for analysis. Women and men, pleural and peritoneal mesotheliomas, type of asbestos and location of exposure has been examined separately.

Quoted from http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/early/2011/07/07/09031936.00000811.abstract?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=8&RESULTFORMAT=&andorexacttitleabs=and&fulltext=mesothelioma&andorexactfulltext=and&searchid=1&usestrictdates=yes&resourcetype=HWCIT&ct

Predicting Survival for Malignant Mesothelioma

Abstract

Malignant mesothelioma (MM) of the pleura or peritoneum is a universally fatal disease attracting an increasing range of medical interventions and escalating health care costs. Changes in survival and the factors affecting survival of all patients ever diagnosed with MM in Western Australia over the past five decades and confirmed by the Western Australian Mesothelioma Registry to December 2005 have been examined. Sex, age, date and method of diagnosis, site of disease and histological type were recorded. Date of onset of symptoms and performance status were obtained from clinical notes for a sample of cases. Cox regression was used to examine the association of the clinical variables and the 10 year periods of disease onset with survival after diagnosis. Survival was inversely related to age, worse for males (HR 1.4 95% CI 1.2–1.6), worse for peritoneal mesothelioma (HR 1.4 95% (CI 1.1–1.7) and for those with poor performance status. Patients with sarcomatoid histology had worse prognosis than patients with epithelioid and bi-phasic histological sub-types. Survival improved after the 1970s and has made incremental improvements since then. Median (interquartile range) survival by decade, from 1960 until 2005, in days were 64 (0–198), 177 (48–350), 221 (97–504), 238 (108–502), and 301 (134–611): about 4 weeks of this apparent improvement can be attributed to earlier diagnosis. With increasing resources and treatment costs for MM over the past 40 years there have been modest improvements in survival but no complete remissions.

Quoted from http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/druginfo/malignantmesothelioma

 

Drugs Approved for Malignant Mesothelioma National Cancer Institute at the National Institutes of Health (Posted: 7/12/2011) This page lists cancer drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for malignant mesothelioma. The list includes generic names, brand names, and common drug combinations, which are shown in capital letters. The drug names link to NCI’s Cancer Drug Information summaries. There may be drugs used in malignant mesothelioma that are not listed here. Alimta (Pemetrexed Disodium) Cisplatin GEMCITABINE-CISPLATIN Pemetrexed Disodium Platinol (Cisplatin) Platinol-AQ (Cisplatin)

 

Quoted from http://annhyg.oxfordjournals.org/content/55/7/817.extract?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=6&RESULTFORMAT=&andorexacttitle=or&andorexacttitleabs=and&fulltext=asbestos&andorexactfulltext=and&searchid=1&usestrictdates=yes&resourcetype=HWCIT&ct

Mesothelioma in a Connecticut Friction Plant: The Need for Transparency and Exposure Information in Attribution of Risk

1. M. Jane Teta

+ Author Affiliations

1. Exponent Inc 420 Lexington Avenue New York, NY 10170 USA

1. E-mail: jteta@exponent.com

• Received September 20, 2010.
• Accepted January 24, 2011.

Several investigators, including myself and my colleagues, have addressed the issue of mesothelioma among employees of the Raybestos Manhattan friction products plant in Connecticut (CT) that, according to McDonald et al. (1984), mainly used chrysotile asbestos. Anthophyllite was used starting in 1957, and a small volume of crocidolite was used between 1964 and 1972 ( McDonald et al., 1984).

Our investigation was a mesothelioma case–control study based on incidence data through 1977 from the CT tumor registry ( Teta et al., 1983). We identified three mesothelioma cases, two female clerical workers in the friction plant and one male who worked in a parent asbestos textile plant. McDonald et al. (1984) published a cohort mortality study of male workers at this plant that did not identify any mesothelioma deaths based on death certificates, also through 1977 ( McDonald et al., 1984, 1986). The male mesothelioma case identified by Teta et al. (1983) did not meet the inclusion criteria for the McDonald et al. (1984) cohort study, and the two female workers, both of whom were in the cohort, were not certified at death as having malignant mesothelioma ( McDonald, 1986; Teta et al., 1986). Almost 20 years later, Egilman and Billings (2005), in a case series report, cite six cases of mesothelioma at this plant based on information from lawsuits. This case series was recently updated by Finkelstein and Meisenkothen (2010).

The current case series by Finkelstein and Meisenkothen (2010) reports six workers from …

[Full Text of this Article]

Quoted from http://annhyg.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2011/09/28/annhyg.mer066.abstract

Asbestos-Related Diseases in Automobile Mechanics

1. Jacques Ameille1,*,
2. Nicole Rosenberg2,
3. Mireille Matrat3,4,
4. Alexis Descatha1,
5. Dominique Mompoint5,
6. Lounis Hamzi6,
7. Catherine Atassi7,
8. Manuela Vasile7,
9. Robert Garnier2 and
10. Jean-Claude Pairon3,4

 

Received March 24, 2011.

Accepted June 23, 2011.

Abstract

Purpose. Automobile mechanics have been exposed to asbestos in the past, mainly due to the presence of chrysotile asbestos in brakes and clutches. Despite the large number of automobile mechanics, little is known about the non-malignant respiratory diseases observed in this population. The aim of this retrospective multicenter study was to analyse the frequency of pleural and parenchymal abnormalities on high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) in a population of automobile mechanics.

Methods. The study population consisted of 103 automobile mechanics with no other source of occupational exposure to asbestos, referred to three occupational health departments in the Paris area for systematic screening of asbestos-related diseases. All subjects were examined by HRCT and all images were reviewed separately by two independent readers; who in the case of disagreement discussed until they reached agreement. Multiple logistic regression models were constructed to investigate factors associated with pleural plaques.

Results. Pleural plaques were observed in five cases (4.9%) and interstitial abnormalities consistent with asbestosis were observed in one case. After adjustment for age, smoking status, and a history of non-asbestos-related respiratory diseases, multiple logistic regression models showed a significant association between the duration of exposure to asbestos and pleural plaques.

Conclusions. The asbestos exposure experienced by automobile mechanics may lead to pleural plaques. The low prevalence of non-malignant asbestos-related diseases, using a very sensitive diagnostic tool, is in favor of a low cumulative exposure to asbestos in this population of workers.

Key words

• asbestos
• automobile mechanics
• brakes

Quoted from http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/ECCO-ESMO/28768

Drug for Mesothelioma Fails Trial

ByKristina Fiore, Staff Writer, MedPage Today Published: September 28, 2011 ReviewedbyRobert Jasmer, MD; Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco and Dorothy Caputo, MA, RN, BC-ADM, CDE, Nurse Planner STOCKHOLM — Vorinostat (Zolinza) failed to extend survival as a second-line therapy in patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma, researchers said here. The phase III trial, the largest of its kind in advanced mesothelioma, failed to meet its primary endpoint of lengthening overall survival in those who failed prior chemotherapy, according to Lee Krug, MD, of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Krug reported the findings at a presidential session at the European Multidisciplinary Cancer Congress, formerly known as the Congress of the European Cancer Organization and European Society for Medical Oncology. “Unfortunately, there was no benefit with regard to overall survival compared with placebo,” Krug said. “There was a statistically significant improvement in progression-free survival, but it wasn’t clinically significant.” Krug said the average survival in advanced mesothelioma is about a year from diagnosis, with 2,000 to 3,000 cases reported annually in the U.S. He noted that cases are usually related to asbestos exposure decades earlier, and are expected to peak between 2015 and 2020 since the product has fallen out of use. Currently, there is no standard second-line chemotherapy for patients with the disease. Earlier studies have shown that a small number of mesothelioma patients treated with the drug had stable disease that lasted four to 13 months. So the researchers launched a phase III trial to investigate its overall survival and tolerability [Article continues at original source]

Quoted from http://www.nature.com/ng/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ng.912.html

Nature Genetics | Letter

Germline BAP1 mutations predispose to malignant mesothelioma

• Joseph R Testa,1
• Mitchell Cheung,1
• Jianming Pei,1
• Jennifer E Below,2
• Yinfei Tan,1
• Eleonora Sementino,1
• Nancy J Cox,2, 3
• A Umran Dogan,4, 5
• Harvey I Pass,6
• Sandra Trusa,6
• Mary Hesdorffer,7
• Masaki Nasu,8, 9
• Amy Powers,8
• Zeyana Rivera,8, 9
• Sabahattin Comertpay,8, 9
• Mika Tanji,8, 9
• Giovanni Gaudino,8
• Haining Yang8, 10
• & Michele Carbone8

• Affiliations
• Contributions
• Corresponding authors

Journal name: Nature Genetics Year published: (2011) DOI: doi:10.1038/ng.912 Received 06 May 2011 Accepted 27 July 2011 Published online 28 August 2011

 

Because only a small fraction of asbestos-exposed individuals develop malignant mesothelioma1, and because mesothelioma clustering is observed in some families, we searched for genetic predisposing factors. We discovered germline mutations in the gene encoding BRCA1 associated protein-1 (BAP1) in two families with a high incidence of mesothelioma, and we observed somatic alterations affecting BAP1 in familial mesotheliomas, indicating biallelic inactivation. In addition to mesothelioma, some BAP1 mutation carriers developed uveal melanoma. We also found germline BAP1 mutations in 2 of 26 sporadic mesotheliomas; both individuals with mutant BAP1 were previously diagnosed with uveal melanoma. We also observed somatic truncating BAP1 mutations and aberrant BAP1 expression in sporadic mesotheliomas without germline mutations. These results identify a BAP1-related cancer syndrome that is characterized by mesothelioma and uveal melanoma. We hypothesize that other cancers may also be involved and that mesothelioma predominates upon asbestos exposure. These findings will help to identify individuals at high risk of mesothelioma who could be targeted for early intervention.

 

[Article continues at original source]

Quoted from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1047279711001803

Mesothelioma from Chrysotile Asbestos: Update

Annals of Epidemiology
Volume 21, Issue 9, September 2011, Pages 688-697

Marty S.Kanarek PhD, MPH

Received 26 March 2011; Accepted 29 May 2011. Available online 4 August 2011.

Purpose

There are different mineral classes of asbestos, including serpentines and amphiboles. Chrysotile is the main type of serpentine and by far the most frequently used type of asbestos (about 95% of world production and use). There has been continuing controversy over the capability of chrysotile asbestos to cause pleural and peritoneal mesothelioma. This review is to help clarify the issue by detailing cases and epidemiology studies worldwide where chrysotile is the exclusive or overwhelming fiber exposure.

Methods

A worldwide literature review was conducted of asbestos and associated mesothelioma including case series, case-control and cohort epidemiology studies searching for well documented chrysotile asbestos associated mesothelioma cases.

Results

Chrysotile asbestos exposures have occurred in many countries around the world from mining, manufacturing and community exposures. There have been many documented cases of mesothelioma from those exposures.

Conclusions

Chrysotile asbestos, along with all other types of asbestos, has caused mesothelioma and a world-wide ban of all asbestos is warranted to stop an epidemic of mesothelioma.

 

Key Words: Asbestos; Malignant Mesothelioma; Chrysotile; Asbestos-Related Diseases; Environmental Epidemiology; Occupational Epidemiology

 

Selected Abbreviations and Acronyms: SMR, standardized mortality ratio; CI, confidence interval; OR, odds ratio

Quoted from http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/druginfo/malignantmesothelioma

Drugs Approved for Malignant Mesothelioma

This page lists cancer drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for malignant mesothelioma. The list includes generic names, brand names, and common drug combinations, which are shown in capital letters. The drug names link to NCI’s Cancer Drug Information summaries. There may be drugs used in malignant mesothelioma that are not listed here.

Alimta (Pemetrexed Disodium)
Cisplatin
GEMCITABINE-CISPLATIN
Pemetrexed Disodium
Platinol (Cisplatin)
Platinol-AQ (Cisplatin)