Incidence Of Mesothelioma

Question: Is the incidence of mesothelioma similar between asbestosis and silicosis?

(Posted by: mdGreg C on 2008-09-24 13:54:20)

Thanks K, I wasn't Sure Where to Go. Anreuro, I Heard this Long Ago, With the Burning of Rice Fields in Central Ca., I Heard that Problem was Ultimately Found to Be From the Release of Silicon, Oxidized Forms, Into the Atmosphere, Not Bagasosis (Sp?).

Posted by: Kynysca on 2008-09-24, 18:02:01

Hopefully, Spreedog answers this Q ;-). Maybe he (or, someone else) will have a much better answer. But, I’ll give this a shot... I found a 1997, where cohorts of asbestos sprayers and silicosis patients were tracked for incidence of cancer. Total cancer, lung cancer, and mesothelioma were dependent/ criterion variables ( <-not familiar with the statistics utilized), from what I saw. I realize this research is a little dated. There is no control group, but just looks like a report on incidence, but, still, not very much control to attribute results to isolated effects. Anyway, from what I read, standardized incidence ratios indicated that asbestos sprayers had a significantly higher incidence in the development of mesothelioma. Silicosis patients only had significantly higher incidence ratios for all sites (i.e., total cancer risk). Check out the abstract for yourself: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ pubmed/ 9131223?ordinalpos= 2 &itool= EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DefaultReportPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum Interesting little bits to do with silicosis and asbestos-related diseases. More recent, but not quite relevant to your Q: Apparently, silicosis and asbestos-related diseases not only differ in their causative materials (obviously, really), but also in terms of complications; autoimmune disorders being common in silicosis and tumors in asbestos-related diseases. Asbestos-related disease patients also show restricted overpresentation of TcR-Vbeta without clonal expansion, whereas silicosis patients reveal significant overpresentation of TcR-Vbeta 7.2. Basically, it may be concluded, here, that there are superantigenic effects associated with asbestos and dysregulation of autoimmunity-inducing effects of silica. I include these aforementioned bits, for the sake of interest, really, but perhaps you may glean something related to your reasoning/ background to do with asking the Q. Here is the relevant abstract: ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ pubmed/ 17166401?ordinalpos= 1 &itool= EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DefaultReportPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum EDIT: Below, scroll down to the graph entitled, "CDC asbestosis vs silicosis deaths " associated with "Attachment 1 ". It's not a very clear graph. Pesky. But, on quick skim, it looks like a comparison of those with either asbestosis or silicosis who expired due to malignant mesothelioma, from 1980 thru 2002. Looks like, asbestosis on the rise and a bigger killer (?): actuary.org/ pdf/ casualty/ asbestos_feb06.pdf

Posted by: aneurodoc125 on 2008-09-24, 18:19:37

Here's a pearl for you. There is a focus of mesothelioma cases in the Belle Glade, FL area. No asbestos there. It is sugar cane growing country. If you look at the fiber of sugar cane and asbestos under the scanning electron microscope, they are identical. When they burn the cane fields after the harvest, the fibers become airborne, and Belle Glade is close. If the wind is right, the fibers blow into the little town. Makes you wonder when you hear of new kitchen containers made of sugar cane fibers.