Association between Malignant Tumors of the Lungs and Pleurae and Asbestosis : A Retrospective Study

In this retrospective study, we reconsidered 221 cases of malignant tumors of lungs and pleurae among the admissions to the Diyarbakir Chest Hospital, Diyarbakir, Turkey, between 1968 and 1976 (inclusive). There were 44 patients with pleural tumors and 177 patients with tumors of the lung (patients of both sexes and of different age groups). Including all of the ten cities of southeast Turkey (with a population of 3,293,649), minimal rates of 1.33/100,000 for pleural neoplasms and 5.37/100,000 for pulmonary neoplasms were found. These figures were then compared with those for the metropolitan area of Diyarbakir, Turkey, and its surrounding villages, where minimum rates were 3.22/100,000 for pleural neoplasms and 13.36/100,000 for pulmonary neoplasms. Although these rates were higher for both kinds of tumors, the rates from areas where handling of asbestos is extensive were compared to areas where asbestos is not found or used. We found that the incidence of pleural neoplasms was 11.4 times higher and the incidence of pulmonary tumors 2.5 times higher in the first group (extensive asbestos) than in the second (no asbestos). Higher incidences of tumors in areas with extensive handling of asbestos were attributed to the dust of chrysotile asbestos, especially in the pleural cases.