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Mineral dusts in lungs with scar or scar cancer
Author(s) -
Yao YuTong,
Wang NaiSan,
Michel René P.,
Poulsen Ronald S.
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.052
H-Index - 304
eISSN - 1097-0142
pISSN - 0008-543X
DOI - 10.1002/1097-0142(19841101)54:9<1814::aid-cncr2820540909>3.0.co;2-v
Subject(s) - scars , pathology , medicine , lung , lung cancer
Five lungs with small scars and five lungs with small scar associated cancers, were studied by light and scanning electron microscopy and x‐ray energy dispersive spectrometry. Six hundred particles were photographed and their physical and chemical properties analyzed from scar, cancer, or normal alveolar tissue on carbon planchet‐mounted, deparaffinized and low temperature‐ashed sections. Amosite/crocidolite fibers were accumulated only in one cancerous lung. All other lungs shared similar types of mineral particles. The lungs with noncancer scars, however, showed an increase in the ratio of aluminum and calcium salts (non‐silicates), while the lungs with scar cances had a higher ratio of silicates. These patterns of particle distribution were similar in different areas of the same lung, despite the fact that particles accumulated heavily in the scar and scarcely in the normal alveolus. Although the mechanism is unclear, these results are consistent with the possibility that the pattern of mineral particle distribution in a lung may influence the formation of cancer in a scar.