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Researchers Report Clearer Understanding of How Asbestos Causes Mesothelioma

Tuesday, July 6th, 2010

The paradox of how asbestos kills cells and yet spurs growth of cancerous tumors has perplexed scientists for decades. A group of scientists led by researchers at the University of Hawaii claim to have new insights into the process. Their research may offer new tools to identify people at risk of developing mesothelioma and to prevent or slow tumor growth in people already diagnosed with asbestos-related disease.

Thousands of Americans have been exposed to asbestos and are at risk of developing malignant mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lung or abdomen. Approximately 2,000 to 3,000 people die of mesothelioma each year in the United States and tens of thousands more worldwide. In addition, asbestos exposure raises the risks that smokers will develop lung cancer.

But the long latency period of 30 to 50 years from asbestos exposure to the appearance of tumors may offer a window of opportunity to block the trigger mechanism that causes asbestos-related cancer.

People often unknowingly inhale microscopic asbestos fibers at workplaces and the fibers can permanently lodge in the lung, causing inflammation. Most human cells exposed to asbestos die within 24 to 48 hours. Dead cells should not be able to multiply and form tumors. So how do cancerous tumors eventually form?

In an article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers describe how asbestos kills cells through a process called programmed cell necrosis that leads to the release of a molecule called mobility group box 1 protein or HMGB1. The protein begins an inflammatory chain reaction in tissue that causes the release of mutagens that promote tumor growth. Cancer often occurs in the presence of chronic inflammation.

Asbestos exposure leads to elevated levels of HMGB1 in the blood, the researchers note. In the study, people with a history of asbestos exposure had HMGB1 levels that were more than four times higher than those of healthy people who had not been exposed.

The researchers say that mesothelial cell death and release of HMGB1 function as triggers in mechanism that leads to asbestos-related cancers. Based on that, they suggest it may be possible eventually to target HMGB1 to treat mesothelioma and identify groups of people who have been exposed to asbestos by simple blood tests to measure HMGB1 levels. By interfering with the inflammatory reaction prompted by asbestos, it may be possible to decrease the occurrence of mesothelioma and reduce the rate of tumor growth among people already diagnosed with mesothelioma.

In the future, therapeutic approaches aimed at blocking chronic inflammation and in particular the protein HMGB1 could reduce the risk of malignant mesothelioma among workers exposed to asbestos.

To test their theory, the lead researchers, Drs. Haining Yang and Michele Carbone of the University of Hawaii plan to conduct a clinical trial in Cappadocia, Turkey, where more than 50 percent of the population of two rural villages dies of mesothelioma from exposure to mineral fibers used in building materials. If the trial produces positive results, they plan to try a similar approach on groups of people exposed to asbestos in the U.S.

Labels: Cancer, Featured News, Mesothelioma, Research
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Researchers Identify Suppressor of Mesothelioma Cell Growth

Monday, May 24th, 2010

By Wade Rawlins

In the last few years, microRNAs have received lots of attention as one of the most significant scientific and medical discoveries. They appear to play a major role in reprogramming a cell to undergo uncontrolled cell division, causing growth of cancerous tumors.

An important new study published this month in The Journal of Biological Chemistry suggests the potential for using microRNAs in innovative treatment therapies to suppress tumor growth in patients with malignant mesothelioma.

Mesothelioma is a cancer associated with asbestos exposure that affects the lining of the lungs or abdomen. It is an aggressive cancer that is often resistant to chemotherapy and radiation treatments. In the United States, 2,000 to 3,000 new cases of mesothelioma are diagnosed each year.

All people —all living organisms in fact—have DNA and RNA, which are the basic building blocks of life. Each microscopic DNA molecule contains hundreds of millions of atoms in a unique sequence with the genetic information to construct cells. RNA translate the genetic information into specific instructions. MicroRNA’s are single stranded molecules that regulate gene expression. “They have been described as the body’s ‘master switches,’” according to Kenneth A. Berlin, president and CEO of Rosetta Genomics, Ltd., a developer of microRNA products used for cancer diagnostic tests.

Abnormal expression of microRNA’s has been linked to the growth of cancer, but researchers haven’t understood well the mechanics of what was occurring at a cellular level.

In the new study, medical researchers from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, New York University Langone Medical Center and Rosetta Genomics, Ltd., analyzed cancer tissue from eight patients with advanced mesothelioma to pinpoint microRNAs linked to the progression of pleural mesothelioma,a cancer of the lining of the lung.

The researchers observed that mesothelioma cancer cells failed to express miR-31, a particular microRNA that has been linked to suppression of breast cancer tumors in mice. An assessment of miR-31 revealed its ability to inhibit the proliferation and invasion of mesothelioma cells. When researchers re-introduced miR-31 into malignant mesothelioma cells, they observed that it significantly inhibited the multiplication and formation of colonies of cancer cells.

The researchers said their analysis demonstrated that miR-31 profoundly affected cell cycle progression in malignant mesothelioma cells.

Researchers have previously connected the loss of the 9p21.3 chromosome in malignant mesothelioma cells with a rapid recurrence of tumors. In the latest research, they say the association of the loss of miR-31 with the deletion of the 9p21.3 chromosomal region and enhanced capacity of cancer cells to proliferate opens new opportunities for treatment of malignant mesothelioma and other tumors.

A study published earlier this year suggested the presence of even a single specific microRNA has significant value for predicting the course that a mesothelioma patient’s disease will take. Using microRNA as a guide, the researcher were able to accurantely divide the patients who had undergone surgery to remove tumors into two groups: those that would survive more than a year after surgery, and those that would die within 12 months. Elevated amounts of microRNA were associated with decreased spread of cancer and longer survival.

Labels: Featured News, Research
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From Spinach to Butterflies, Scientist Finds Common Structure to Develop Mesothelioma Drug

Monday, May 10th, 2010

Edward C. Taylor’s name appears nowhere on the packaging of the anti-cancer medication Alimta as its inventor. But the Princeton University professor still receives thank you letters and emails from grateful mesothelioma patients who have survived well beyond their projected lifespans after starting a course of chemotherapy treatment.

Today, Alimta (known as permetrexed in injectable form) is an anti-cancer medication approved to treat malignant mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs or abdomen associated with asbestos, and non-small cell cancers. About 85 percent to 90 percent of lung cancers are non-small cell cancer, according to the American Cancer Society.

“Even though the drug was developed and marketed by Eli Lilly, people find out that I am the inventor and send me personal notes of thanks,” Taylor told the Times of Trenton (N.J.) in a profile article. “One man from Australia, which has a lot of asbestos because it was a center of asbestos mining, was given two months to live. That was five years ago, and all traces of cancer have disappeared. He’s fit and full and vim and vigor and he wants me to know it. I have a stack of emails from him.”

The development of the drug followed decades of research and a scientific odyssey of discovery by Prof. Taylor that included fascinations with the human liver, spinach and even butterflies.

Early in his career, Taylor grew intrigued with a compound that had been identified in the human liver and that also was found in spinach leaves and was considered an essential growth factor of micro-organisms. He set out to discover the chemical connection. His scientific inquiry expanded to include butterflies after he read an article about the ring system found in the pigments in the wings of white English cabbage butterflies. As it turned out, the material from liver and spinach possessed a structure that contained as a key element, the butterfly wing pigment structure.

Scientists eventually identified the compound as folic acid, which our bodies use to make new cells and which is essential to healthy growth and development. Taylor was further intrigued that modifying the structure of folic acid slightly could change it into an anti-bacterial compound that not only stopped the growth of micro-organisms, but also caused the remission of a type of lethal leukemia. But the compound was toxic to healthy cells as well.

Taylor’s lab in the late 1970s developed a compound that functioned as an antitumor agent that was less toxic toward normal cells. Any compound that works to kill tumors and is less toxic to normal cells is of special interest to drug manufacturers. In 1985, Taylor collaborated with Eli Lilly to try to develop the compound into an anti-cancer drug. Taylor and his collaborators synthesized more than 800 potential anti-cancer compounds that didn’t work before hitting upon Alimta.

Taylor’s dogged persistence paid off. After decades of research, an estimated $2 billion in costs and 11 years of clinical trial, Alimta was approved from the Food and Drug Administration. Alimta is given in combination with cisplatin for treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma, when surgery is not an option.

Prof. Taylor is still doing research and the royalties paid to Princeton Univesrity by Eli Lilly for Alimta are paying for construction of a new 263,000-square-foot building to house the Department of Chemistry.

Source: Times of Trenton:

http://www.nj.com/mercer/index.ssf/2010/05/his_find_became_tumors_nemesis.html

Labels: Cancer, Featured News, Research
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Researchers Seek Antibodies that Predict Mesothelioma, Other Cancers

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

By Wade Rawlins
Doctors often have difficulty distinguishing whether a patient has malignant mesothelioma, a cancer that affects the lining of the lung, or adenocarcinoma, a type of cancer that affects the lung itself. Increasingly, they have used sophisticated blood tests that involve various panels of antibodies to help diagnose malignant mesothelioma.

Antibodies are proteins that are produced as part of the body’s immune system reaction. They are produced to fend off or neutralize invading molecules of cold germs and diseases. Clinicians use antibodies to identify or “tag” the specific antigens that indicate tissue changes consistent with mesothelioma or other diseases. For example, elevated amounts of the PSA antibody are a signal of possible prostate cancer in men so after a certain age men routinely have a PSA test when they get a physical. The antibodies are identified in laboratory blood tests.

Yet, there is no overall consensus as to which cocktail of antibodies is best at predicting the presence of mesothelioma. The lab tests are somewhat costly, so there is a need for development of consensus on guidelines for standardized antibody tests for the diagnosis of malignant mesothelioma. It could help reduce diagnostic errors and cost.

Recognizing this knowledge gap, researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles reviewed hospital medical records and identified 153 patients that were diagnosed from 2005 to 2007 with malignant epithelioid cells in pleural effusions, the excess fluid in the sac that encases the lungs and causes shortness of breath and chest pain. They analyzed the profile of antibodies and antigens of each malignant pleural effusion and correlated it with the various disease diagnoses. Their aim was to evaluate which antibodies were most predictive.

Currently, the number of antibodies analyzed by a lab to make a diagnosis varies widely. Some cell pathologists use just one or two antibodies per case to focus on the most probable diagnosis in a case. Others cast a wide net and employ more than 20 antibodies to test for every possible diagnosis to provide a comprehensive (and more costly) work-up. A maximum of 31 different immunohistochemical tests had been used by cell pathologists during the work up of the 153 cases examined by the researchers, with an average of 6 antibodies per case.

In an analysis of data published in Diagnostic Cytopathology, the researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center said the anti-bodies that provided the best odds for specific diagnoses were TTF-1 for pulmonary carcinoma, calretinin for mesothelioma, ER and PR for breast carcinoma, CA125 for Mullerian, CDX2 for gastrointestinal origin of a carcinoma and PSA for prostatic carcinoma.

The antibody panels were able to diagnose correctly 77 percent of the malignant pleural fluid cell specimens from female patients and 50 percent of those from male patients.

The researchers said a systematic approach is needed to select gender specific anti-body panels to evaluate pleural cytology specimens with malignant epithelioid cells. They said their results would need to be confirmed with other tests using larger sample sizes. But they said their preliminary results do suggest that the antibody panels have significantly better predictive value than ad hoc panels selected by individual cell paththologists. They said the use of two anti-body panels tailored to the patient’s gender for the incidence of various tumors provides a cost-effective and sensitive method for the initial work-up of the cases.

Labels: Featured News, Research
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New York Attorney Discusses How To Pinpoint Asbestos Exposure

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

People who get diagnosed with mesothelioma fall into two categories, said New York attorney Joseph Belluck.
There are those who know automatically how they were exposed to asbestos, the toxic fibers that when inhaled can cause respiratory diseases such as mesothelioma, an incurable cancer of the lining of the lungs or abdomen.

“They worked in a Navy ship, or they worked in a factory,” said Belluck, noting occupations commonly associated with asbestos exposure. “They were an automobile mechanic. Their father was a plumber.”

Then there are other people who are diagnosed with mesothelioma who have no idea how they were exposed. They’re looking for answers.

“In almost every case like that, we are able to find an exposure to asbestos,” said Belluck, a partner in Belluck & Fox, a nationally-known law firm that specializes in representing victims of asbestos-related disease. “We’ve represented dentists, veterinarians, physicians, laboratory technicians, teachers. A lot of times people have worked with asbestos, for example dentists or jewelers, and they’re not even aware that they did.”

A Life History

Belluck said it’s important to keep in mind that if someone has mesothelioma, then they were exposed to asbestos at some point. Identifying the exposure is a matter of thoroughly examining their background.

“We start by meeting with our client and taking a very, very thorough life history of the client that includes their occupational history, any military service that they had and any work with asbestos that they would have done at their home or on their automobiles,” Belluck said.
“ A lot of times the clients aren’t even aware that certain things they did exposed them to asbestos,” Belluck said. “So that interview is very, very important.

“We have dealt with people in all walk’s of life so we have a good idea of what questions to ask,” he said.

In addition, the lawyers gather information about the occupations of their client’s parent, children and spouses to see if there might have been second-hand exposure to asbestos through other family members.

“If the person served on a ship in the Navy or the Merchant Marine, we would get records from the Coast Guard or the Navy as to the design of the ship and what equipment was on the ship,” Belluck said. “We would hire a researcher in Washington to go to the Naval archives or the Coast Guard archives and actually pull the drawings and documents related to the specific ship that our clients were on.”

“There is a lot of investigation that goes into the case prior to filing it so we know who the proper defendants are,” he said.

New York Work Sites

For many work sites in New York, Belluck & Fox has already conducted extensive investigations and document reviews and is familiar with the equipment and types of boilers on site and possible ways workers could be exposed to asbestos.

“If someone worked at the Kodak plant in Rochester or the General Electric plant in Schenectady, we’ve already done a lot of work on those sites and the products that we were there,” Belluck said.

“We would use a lot of records and documents that we already have in house here, which is really the main reason to hire a firm like ours,” Belluck said. “We already have a lot of the information and knowledge stored here that allows us to prosecute the lawsuit.”

The number of defendants often named in asbestos lawsuits also makes the cases somewhat unusual. “There may be 15 or 20 parties that contribute to a settlement or overall recovery,” Belluck said. “The majority of defendants settle and one or two hang around and we either have to start trial or finish trial against those.”

Fast Track Docket

Belluck said most cases settle out of court, although every case is prepared as if it is going to trial. Because New York courts often grant requests to put asbestos lawsuits on an expedited schedule because of the plaintiff’s declining health, the cases are often resolved in a year or less.
“It’s a very, very fast docket.” Belluck said. “From the time that we get the case until the time that it’s over is usually seven to 12 months.”

The cases typically settle without a trial, which means the plaintiffs receive their compensation more quickly.

“There are a lot of benefits to settlement for everybody in terms of the risk involved, expense of trial, the emotional and time commitment of a trial,” Belluck said.

Labels: Asbestos, Featured News
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Does Follow-up Surgery for Recurring Malignant Mesothelioma Improve Survival?

Thursday, January 7th, 2010

A second surgery to treat a recurrence of malignant mesothelioma in the lining of the lung is not necessarily effective in helping patients live longer, Italian researchers say, based on a small study described in the January 2010 edition of The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, a medical journal.

The researchers, Dr. Leonardo Politi of the University of Florence, and Dr. Giuseppe Borzelleno of the University of Verona, examined the cases of 74 mesothelioma patients who underwent surgery over 20 years to remove a diseased lung as well the membrane tissue covering the lung and heart, and diaphragm muscle. The procedure is called an extrapleural pneumonectomy.

The researchers said that of 57 patients for whom there was follow-up medical information, 11 patients experienced a recurrence of mesothelioma a year-and-a-half to 12 years after the initial surgery. Of these, eight patients were in good enough health to undergo a second surgery in which additional diseased tissue was removed.

The length that the patients survived after their second surgery ranged from six months to 29 months with the median survival rate 14.5 months.

The researchers conclude that in the cases examined, the second surgery did not offer the expected curative benefits. They said the procedure should be considered a remedy that temporarily relieved a patient’s pain, but didn’t provide a cure. They argue that a second surgery should be considered an option for a select group of malignant mesothelioma patients who cannot undergo additional radiation therapy.

In an accompanying commentary, Dr. David Rice, director of the Mesothelioma Program at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, writes that partial removal of malignant tumors to manage malignant pleural mesothelioma remains controversial surgery. Rice said that extrapleural pneumonectomies generally provided a more complete removal of tumors than simply removing the lining of the lung. Still he acknowledged that patients who underwent extrapleural pneumonectomies did not appear to survive longer than patients who underwent less radical surgeries.

Journal Article

Labels: Featured News, Mesothelioma
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Sculptor of Dead Diagnosed with Mesothelioma

Tuesday, December 29th, 2009

Frank Bender, a commercial photographer turned sculptor and forensic artist, has an uncanny ability to discern how someone looked from their skeletal remains. Bender has put this unusual talent to work to help with the identification of numerous murder victims and the solving of at least nine murders.

A commission by the Philadelphia Police Department in 1977 required him to recreate the likeness of a woman who had been shot three times in the head and dumped near the airport. Bender’s sensitive rendering of her likeness led to the identification of a missing Phoenix woman, Anna Duval.

Bender’s forensic facial reconstruction work has been featured on CBS’s 60 Minutes and profiled in the book, “The Girl with the Crooked Nose,” by Ted Botha. In 1989, America’s Most Wanted commissioned Bender to produce a bust of John List, a New Jersey accountant who killed his wife, mother and children, then disappeared. Bender’s challenge was to imagine how List would look after 18 years as a fugitive. The bust that Bender produced led to the identificationof List by a neighbor in Colorado within two weeks after the television program aired. John Walsh, the host of America’s Most Wanted, told the Philadelphia Inquirer that Bender’s bust had launced the television show as a force in apprehension of criminals.

Now Bender is looking death in the face in a different way. The 68-year-old self-taught artist who served in the Navy during the late 1950s and early 1960s, has been diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of lungs. Mesothelioma is associated with breathing asbestos dust, and Bender worked around plenty of it in the engine room of the destroyer escort Calcaterra. Asbestos was commonly used in ships in that era.

“I not only worked with asbestos, I slept with it,” Bender told the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The navy is processing a disability claim for Bender.

Bender told the newspaper that surgery would be fatal because the cancer is already around his heart and lung like a spiderweb. “Radiation might ease the pain, but it’s not going to save me,” he said.

Check out Frank Bender’s paintings and sculpture

Read the Philadelphia Inquirer column

Labels: Featured News
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Ten Facts about Mesothelioma and Asbestos

Friday, December 11th, 2009

• Most cases of mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs or abdomen, are diagnosed 30 years or more after exposure.

•The number of cases of mesothelioma will peak in the United States in 2010, researchers at the Centers for Disease Control project.

• About 2,500 to 3,000 new cases of Mesothelioma are diagnosed each year in the United States.

• The national death rate for mesothelioma in the United States is 14 deaths per million population, according to National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

•Six states—Maine, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Washington, Wyoming and West Virginia—have death rates greater than 20 deaths per million people, according to National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

• An area around Genoa, Italy has the highest rate of asbestos-related cancer in the world with 58 cases per million people, according to the International Agency for Research on Cancer.

• Asbestos is no longer mined in the United States, but it is still imported and used in construction and automotive products. Large quantities of asbestos remain in buildings that will eventually have to be removed.

• Asbestos minerals when disturbed tend to separate into microscopic fibers that float in the air and are easily inhaled.

• Doctors have diagnosed asbestos-related disease in family members of miners and other asbestos workers who brought home asbestos dust on their clothing and in residents living near asbestos mines and plants.

• About 90,000 people die each year around the world due to asbestos exposure, the World Health Organization estimates.

Labels: Featured News
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New York Demolition Contractor Cited for Alleged Asbestos Removal Violations

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

By Wade Rawlins
Cambria Contracting Inc., a Lockport, New York demolition contractor, faces $484,000 in proposed penalties for 11 alleged violations of asbestos cleanup standards at a site in Buffalo, New York.

According to a press release issued Monday by the U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration, Cambria Contracting failed to train and protect workers who were cleaning up asbestos-contaminated debris at the former AM&A department store warehouse.

Asbestos was widely used in building materials and insulation until the 1970s, but is now strictly regulated because of the health hazard asbestos dust poses. Inhaling asbestos fibers is linked to serious respiratory diseases including mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs and abdomen.

“These significant penalties reflect the fact that this employer, an asbestos contractor with extensive knowledge of the OSHA standards that govern asbestos removal and handling, chose not to follow these standards and put its workers, including young inexperienced college students in harm’s way,” Jordon Barab, acting Assistant Secretary for OSHA, said in a statement. OSHA is the federal agency charged with promoting safe working conditions by setting and enforcing standards and providing training and education.

OSHA investigators found that several Cambria Contracting workers who were cleaning up debris, had not been training in asbestos hazards or how to protect themselves. They were not wearing protective clothing or respirators and had not been informed of the presence of asbestos at the site. OSHA said the demolition contractor failed to establish an asbestos work area at the site and used debris removal methods that can cause asbestos fibers to be released into the air.

The former warehouse is being renovated for offices and housing, the Buffalo News reported.

OSHA cited Cambria for willful violations which are defined as violations committed with plain indifference to or intentional disregard for worker safety and health.

“This employer knew that training and other safeguards, which are well-known in the industry were required, yet chose not to provide them,” said Robert Kulick, OSHA’s New York regional administrator. “That is unacceptable and needlessly placed the health of these workers at risk.”

Cambria has 15 days to contest the citations and proposed penalties.

Arthur Dube, OSHA’s Buffalo area director, added, “ Asbestos is well recognized as a health hazard since inhalation of asbestos fibers may lead to lung cancer and other diseases. As exposures frequently occur during renovation and demolition work, we strongly urge contractors to ensure that their workers are adequately trained and protected against asbestos harzards.”

Read OSHA Press Release

Labels: Featured News, National News
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Residents Near Asbestos Plant at 26 Times Greater Risk of Mesothelioma, Study Says

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

By Wade Rawlins
Much remains to be learned about environmental exposure to asbestos and the incidence of mesothelioma among people who have only “second hand” exposure such as families of asbestos workers or people who live near asbestos plants. That is a focus of new research in Libby, Montana where vermiculite ore tainted with asbestos has caused a high rate of asbestos-related disease. It’s also the subject of recently completed research from Egypt.

A study published by researchers in Egypt earlier this year examined environmental exposure to asbestos near Cairo, Egypt and the link to malignant pleural mesothelioma, a rare cancer of the lining of the lungs. The study appeared in the Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal, a publication of the World Health Organization.

The prevalence of mesothelioma, an incurable cancer, has been increasing throughout the industrialized world with the incidence predicted to peak around 2020, the study said. A number of studies have linked exposure to airborne asbestos fibers in the workplace to increased incidence of mesothelioma among workers employed in mining, textile manufacturing, insulation and asbestos cement factories. Families of asbestos workers and those living near asbestos mines and mills also are at increased risk of mesothelioma from environmental exposure, studies suggest.

The Egyptian researchers focused their study on Shubra El-Kheima, an industrial city at the northern edge of Cairo. For decades starting in 1948, the city had a large manufacturing plant that used chrysotile asbestos to make asbestos cement pipe and reinforced concrete products. In 2004, the Egyptian government decided to ban imports of asbestos and the plant closed.

While the plant was still operating full scale, the researchers obtained air samples inside the plant and in neighborhoods up to about 2 miles away. That allowed the researchers to calculate more precisely the amount of asbestos fibers that workers and residents were inhaling and then to estimate the relationship between levels of exposure and rates of mesothelioma.

Researchers did health screenings including x-rays on 487 workers in the plant and on 2,913 residents living in six communities in the vicinity of the plant. They found that about 3 percent of people exposed to asbestos living near the plant had malignant mesothelioma while about 1 percent of the workers did. Both rates exceed the norm. (Because mesothelioma takes 30 to 40 years to appear, it’s not surprising that the number of workers at the plant with the disease was not larger.)

Researchers said a significant finding of the study was that people exposed to asbestos in the environment were at 26 times greater risk of developing mesothelioma than people in a more distant neighborhood, who had no known environmental asbestos exposure nearby.

The community of El-Wehda El-Arabia, directly downwind of the plant, had the highest concentration of asbestos fibers in air samples and also had the highest incidence of mesothelioma among residents of the six communities studied, the researchers found. Thirty-nine residents had malignant pleural mesothelioma.

Researchers also found a correlation between length of exposure to asbestos and rates of mesothelioma. The more years residents were exposed to asbestos, the greater the likelihood of having the disease with a significant increase for those with 40 years or more of exposure. More than 60 percent of the residents with mesothelioma were women, the researchers. They attributed that to their long residence in the area.

The researchers said the study had an important message: the mesothelioma threat will remain for years to come and doctors should look for early signs of mesothelioma in people who had had environmental exposure to mesothelioma.

Read the study