Mesothelioma Epidemic- Mesothelioma Deaths, Malignant Tumor
UK FACES ASBESTOS EPIDEMIC, Radical Surgery for Mesothelioma
The United Kingdom is facing an epidemic of mesothelioma (a malignant tumour of the lung lining) among workers exposed to asbestos, warn senior doctors in this week's BMJ.
There are now over 1800 mesothelioma deaths per year in Britain (more than one in 200 of all deaths in men and almost one in 1000 in women) and the number is still increasing. As exposure in the UK continued until 1980 the peak of the epidemic is still to come, and we need a strategy to manage these patients, they write.
Some patients and their doctors desperately seek radical surgery as their only hope, but others have doubts about the evidence.
But irrespective of whether radical surgery will be considered, all doctors need to know how to recognise and diagnose this disease and what treatments are available.
This disease is increasing in frequency. There is nothing we can do now to prevent it in workers exposed to asbestos throughout the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, say the authors.
What we can do is recognise it early, treat it actively, and learn about best treatment with carefully thought out studies because we will be seeing many more mesotheliomas in the next 25 years. In the developed world alone 100,000 people alive now will die from it, they conclude.
Contact:
Professor Tom Treasure
Cardiothoracic Unit
Guy's Hospital, London, UK
Email: tom.treasure@gstt.sthames.nhs.uk