Malignant asbestos-related disease in a population exposed to asbestos

Clinical investigation of former workers exposed to asbestos: the health surveillance experience of an Italian University Hospital

Background

The need for health surveillance of former workers exposed to asbestos was provided by law in Italy after the asbestos ban in 1992.

Objectives

We describe the results of the health surveillance of former workers exposed to asbestos, conducted over 27 years, from 1994 to 2020, at the Operative Unit of Occupational Medicine of the University Hospital of Bari.

Materials and methods

We adopted the health surveillance protocol, which was validated at the national level in 2018.

Results

A total of 1,405 former workers exposed to asbestos were examined. We proceeded with diagnosing pathologies in 339 cases (24% of the cohort subjected to surveillance), with diagnoses of some cases involving multiple pathologies. Specifically, pleural plaques were diagnosed in 49.2% of the 339 cases, asbestosis in 35.9%, malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) in 20.3%, mesothelioma of the vaginal tunic of the testis (MTVT) in 9.1%, lung cancer in 5.8%, and laryngeal cancer in 0.8%.

Conclusion

Despite the 1992 asbestos ban, asbestos-related diseases remain a serious public health issue. It is important to establish criteria that ensure the health surveillance of formerly exposed workers minimizes costs, reduces the number of invasive examinations, and optimizes achievable results.

Advances in Immunotherapy of Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma

Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) represents the uncommon cancer originating from pleural mesothelial cells, which is associated with dismal prognostic outcome. According to CheckMate-743 results, nivolumab plus ipilimumab has been approved to treat the unresectable MPM in treatment-naive patients as a first-line therapy by the FDA in October 2020. Immunotherapy is expected to be the best choice for MPM treatment. In the following article, the past treatment plan and the progress of immunotherapy for MPM will be reviewed.

Malignant mesothelioma: Ongoing controversies about its etiology in females

Malignant mesothelioma (MM) is one of the most aggressive cancers with the poorest of outcomes. There is no doubt that mesothelioma in males is related to asbestos exposure, but some authors suggest that most of the cases diagnosed in females are "idiopathic." In our assessment of the science, the "low risk" of mesothelioma in females is because of the nonsystematic recording of exposure histories among females. Indeed, asbestos exposure is mentioned in only some of the studies that include females. We estimate the risk of MM among females to be close to that in males. The absence of detailed exposure histories should be rectified in future studies involving ​women. As a matter of social justice, the ongoing failure to recognize asbestos as the cause of a majority of cases of MM in females does them, and their kin, a profound disservice.