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Occupational Cancers pp 363–378Cite as

Malignant Mesothelioma: Asbestos Exposure

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Abstract

Malignant mesothelioma is an uncommon cancer arising from the serosa of the pleura, peritoneum, pericardium, and tunica vaginalis testis. There have been substantial recent developments in relation to optimizing its accurate diagnosis and distinction from its mimics, understanding its molecular pathobiology and characterizing its varied causes. However, over the past five decades, there have been only modest improvements in the median overall survival of patients with the disease. Despite a better understanding of prognostic factors, malignant mesothelioma remains an almost invariably fatal cancer despite treatment. The proportion of malignant mesothelioma cases attributable to asbestos varies considerably according to fiber type, occupation and industry, tumor site, and gender. It is important to be mindful of the recent scientific literature when evaluating mesothelioma causation in extrapleural sites, in women, and in young persons because most of these cases are not likely asbestos-related cancers. These minority cases contrast with the majority of pleural mesotheliomas in men which are primarily caused by asbestos, most typically commercial amphiboles following occupational exposures.

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  1. Department of Cellular Pathology, University Hospital of Wales, Heath Park, and School of Medicine, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK

    Richard L. Attanoos

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  1. Department of Pathology, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland

    Sisko Anttila

  2. Tisch Cancer Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA

    Paolo Boffetta

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Attanoos, R.L. (2020). Malignant Mesothelioma: Asbestos Exposure. In: Anttila, S., Boffetta, P. (eds) Occupational Cancers. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30766-0_20

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