Premium
Silicosis, mixed dust pneumoconiosis, and lung cancer
Author(s) -
Honma Koichi,
Chiyotani Keizo,
Kimura Kiyonobu
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
american journal of industrial medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.7
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1097-0274
pISSN - 0271-3586
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1097-0274(199712)32:6<595::aid-ajim4>3.0.co;2-p
Subject(s) - pneumoconiosis , silicosis , medicine , lung cancer , asbestosis , pathology , pulmonary fibrosis , cancer , lung , fibrosis , autopsy , incidence (geometry) , respiratory disease , physics , optics
A total of 764 autopsy cases with a pathological diagnosis of nonasbestos pneumoconiosis were investigated in a search for lung cancer: 146 patients bore 148 lung cancers (19.1%). The incidence of a lung cancer was associated positively with aging, longer occupational exposures, and smoking habits. A reverse correlation was found between carcinogenesis and the severity of pneumoconiosis. A statistically significant increase in the incidence of certain types of lung cancer (squamous cell carcinoma + small cell carcinoma) was found in silicotic lungs with massive fibrosis as compared to lungs with mixed dust pneumoconiosis of comparable severity. Although there appears to be no dose‐response relationship in general between silicosis and lung cancer, it is advisable to consider the possibility that a presumptive silica‐induced carcinogenesis might be masked by the severe fibrosis of a silicotic type, which obliterates the lung tissue in a different way from asbestosis, which is associated with epithelial proliferation. Am. J. Ind. Med. 32:595–599, 1997. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.