A case of simultaneous double cancer (lung and stomach cancer) related to asbestos exposure

Abstract

A 76 year-old male with simultaneous double cancer (lung and stomach cancer) was reported. The patient was followed up for pleural plaque on chest X-ray from 1986. The diagnosis of stomach cancer was decided by biopsy and lung cancer by operation at the same time in 1989. The histology of these two tumors were different (stomach: well differentiated tubular adenocarcinoma, lung: moderately differentiated papillary adenocarcinoma) and the stomach cancer was early stage and lung cancer was stage IIIa. He had a definite history of asbestos exposure in Japanese naval shipyard. Pleural plaque with calcification was found on chest X-ray and numerous asbestos bodies were detected in the resected lung tissue. Almost all asbestos fibers examined by an X-ray analyzer with scanning microscopy were chrysotile or tremolite. Furthermore, he was a heavy smoker (B.I., 1650). These tumors developed after 59 years of the first asbestos exposure. Asbestos exposure and smoking are considered to be important pathogenesis factors related to these two tumors.