Open AccessLobe of origin of lung cancer among asbestos-exposed patients with or without diffuse interstitial fibrosis.
Author(s) -
Antti Karjalainen,
Sisko Anttila,
L Heikkilä,
Pentti Kyyrönen,
Harri Vainio
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
scandinavian journal of work, environment and health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.621
H-Index - 103
eISSN - 1795-990X
pISSN - 0355-3140
DOI - 10.5271/sjweh.1490
Subject(s) - asbestosis , asbestos , lung cancer , medicine , pathology , lung , pulmonary fibrosis , fibrosis , lobe , materials science , metallurgy
The effect of asbestos exposure and asbestos-associated fibrosis on the lobe of origin of lung cancer was studied among 108 lung cancer patients. The asbestos-exposed patients had significantly more lower lobe tumors than the unexposed patients. Similar results were obtained when occupational history or lung fiber concentration was used as an indicator of past occupational exposure to asbestos. The predominance of lower lobe tumors occurred even among exposed patients with no histological signs of asbestosis in their lung specimens. Both bronchial and peripheral cancers showed a lower lobe predominance among the exposed patients. Smoking history did not affect the lobar distribution of the tumors. No significant differences occurred for the histological cell types of the tumors between the exposed and unexposed patients. Patients with asbestosis had, however, more adenocarcinomas than the unexposed patients. The results indicate that asbestos may increase the risk of lung cancer even in the absence of asbestosis.