Extraction of ferruginous bodies from lung tissue obtained at surgery and autopsy. Special reference to carcinoma of lung.
Ferruginous bodies were extracted quantitatively from 508 patients; operated 242 with lung cancer and 94 with non-lung cancer, and autopsy 51 from hepatomas, 42 from stomach cancers, and 79 from non-cancer diseases. The bodies were divided morphologically into 4 types; 2 types may be from asbestos and the other 2 types from carbon and silicate which were very rarely found. The incidence of the bodies was the highest in hepatoma 96.8, followed by lung cancer 90.8%, non-lung cancer 80%, stomach cancer 76.2%, and non-cancer 74.2% in the years 1975-1981. Distribution of count of asbestos bodies was characteristic in patients with lung cancer, i.e. the cases who had asbestos bodies above 100/5 g of wet lung were found in 36 of 242 patients with lung cancer (14.8%) who were all smokers and 15 of 266 patients with the other diseases (5.6%) with significant difference between the two groups. Moreover, out of 14 patients who had the bodies above 300/5 g of wet lung, 9 were patients with lung cancer and also smoked heavily, and remaining 5 patients with diseases other than lung cancer consisted of 2 heavy smokers, a moderate and a mild smoker, and a non-smoker. These evidences may suggest the existence of some relation between occurrence of lung cancer and low degree of asbestos exposure with addition of smoking.
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001194:Asbestos / Q000032:analysis; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000032:analysis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008113:Liver Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry; D008168:Lung / Q000737:chemistry*; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry*; D008297:Male; D008667:Metalloproteins / Q000032:analysis*; D008875:Middle Aged; D012737:Sex Factors; D012907:Smoking; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry
D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D008667:Metalloproteins; D001194:Asbestos