Abstract
We reviewed malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) cases diagnosed at our hospital between 1993 and 2002 with respect to age, sex, histologic type, diagnostic method, stage, and history of occupational and environmental asbestos exposure. Of 106 patients aged between 31 and 83 years (mean age 54.75 years), 28 patients (26%) were females and 78 (74%) were males. Ninety-one patients (84%) had asbestos exposure, which was found to be occupational in 14 patients (13%), environmental in 41 patients (39%) and both occupational and environmental in 36 (34%). In 15 patients (14%) no asbestos exposure was reported. Fifty-two patients (49%) were afflicted with the epithelial, 18 (17%) with the mixed, and one patient (1%) with the sarcomatous subtype of MPM. In 35 patients (33%) the histologic subtype was not clear. Diagnosis was confirmed by biopsy alone in 43 patients (42%), by cytology alone in 5 patients (5%), by open lung biopsy in 53 (50%), by transthoracic needle aspiration biopsy in 3(2%), by skin biopsy in one patient (1%) and by mediasti- notomy in one patient (1%). The majority (76%) of the patients were advanced cases at presentation. Distribution of 106 patients according to tumor stages I,II,III and IV were 9%, 15%, 54%, and 22% respectively. Pleural effusion was present in 75 patients (71%). Environmental asbestos exposure rather than occupational exposure was found to be (73% vs. 47%) a major determinant in the etiology of MPM in this group of Turkish patients.
Keywords: malignant mesothelioma, asbestos, occupational exposure, environmental exposure
