Pulmonary Asbestosis: V. A Report of Bronchial Carcinoma and Epithelial Metaplasia

Abstract

Following our report in 1935 (1), some further interest in the occurrence of lung cancer in asbestosis has been manifested. Six cases have been recorded, by Gloyne (2, 3), Egbert and Geiger (4) and Nordmann (5). The present report brings the total to 8. Nordmann believes that these cases should be classified as occupational cancers. In 1938 Anderson and Dible (6) studied the silica content of the lungs and the histologic evidence of pneumonoconiosis in 70 persons who died of pulmonary carcinoma and in 50 non-cancer subjects. A greater incidence of silicosis and a greater lung silica content were found among those who had cancer than in the control series, from which the authors conclude that the role of the silicosis is etiological. Vorwald and Karr (7), also in 1938, reviewed the reports of carcinoma of the lungs in subjects of pulmonary dust disease and reached the conclusion that no relationship has been shown between the inhalation of dust and the occurrence of cancer and that, except as it contains known carcinogenic factors, such as tar or radium, dust cannot be considered as of etiologic significance in malignant disease of the lungs.