Ras oncoprotein expression in erionite- and asbestos-induced Turkish malignant pleural mesothelioma patients—a pilot study

Abstract

Malignant pleuralmesothelioma continues to be a public health problem inTurkey, where, in somevillages of rural parts of Anatolia, it is responsible for more than 50% of total deaths (1). Exposure to environmental asbestos or ¢brous zeolite (erionite) is the cause of this disease in these villages.The relationship between the exposure to these minerals and the development of malignant mesothelioma has been clearly established by both experimental and epidemiological studies (2). However, the mechanism of mesothelial carcinogenesis in relation to the activation of proto-oncogenes or inactivation of tumour suppressor genes remains unclear. In order to investigate the role of ras expression in malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM), we examined the expression of p21 ras oncoprotein in 31 environmentally-inducedTurkish MPM patients.