bims-mesote 2024-11-24 papers

Issue of 2024–11–24
four papers selected by
Laura Mannarino, Humanitas Research

Am J Ind Med. 2024 Nov 18.

A Review of Job Assignments and Asbestos Workplace Exposure Measurements for TAWP Mesothelioma Deaths Through 2011.

Valerie J Willis, Jeffrey L Levin, Dalia E Nessim.

INTRODUCTION: Asbestos workers have a higher risk of developing mesothelioma; however, few studies have looked at specific jobs and job locations within asbestos factories. The purpose of this study was to investigate asbestos exposure in different job locations of the Tyler, Texas asbestos plant to determine if there was a relationship between the duration of exposure and air fiber concentration burden in workers who developed pleural versus peritoneal mesothelioma.
METHODS: This study used a patient information database to compile secondary data on 23 workers who died from mesothelioma through 2011. The airborne fiber exposure burdens for each of the 23 workers were estimated and then stratified by job location category and by type of mesothelioma for analysis.
RESULTS: Most of the worker cases were assigned to the forming area which had the overall highest fiber concentration of all the plant's job locations. Workers who developed pleural mesothelioma spent the most time in the packing and miscellaneous locations, whereas workers who developed peritoneal mesothelioma worked mostly in the forming and miscellaneous locations. There were significant differences in days worked and estimated airborne exposure fiber burden between the pleural and peritoneal mesothelioma cases in the forming and curing locations.
CONCLUSION: Results from this study reiterate the association between occupational asbestos exposure and mesothelioma, emphasizing the importance of concentration of respirable asbestos dust levels and duration of exposure.

Keywords: TAWP; Tyler Asbestos Workers Program; amosite; asbestos; mesothelioma; occupational exposure; peritoneal mesothelioma; pleural mesothelioma

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ajim.23675

J Thorac Dis. 2024 Oct 31. 16(10): 6462-6474

The impact of age on the efficacy of radiotherapy in pleural mesothelioma patients receiving trimodality therapy: a population-based study of the SEER database.

Jun Yang, Liang Xia, Hui Jie, Tengyong Wang, Chenglin Guo, Chengwu Liu, Hu Liao, Jiandong Mei, Qiang Pu, Lunxu Liu.

Background: Pleural mesothelioma (PM) is a highly aggressive tumor with poor survival outcomes. The role of additional radiotherapy for PM patients who have received surgery and chemotherapy remains controversial. In this study, we aim to evaluate the impact of age on the effectiveness of additional radiotherapy in order to identify the populations that may benefit from the trimodality therapy.
Methods: We designed a case-control study and retrospectively selected PM patients who underwent surgery and chemotherapy, with or without radiotherapy, from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database (2000-2019). Kaplan-Meier curves were performed to compare the overall survival (OS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS) between the surgery + chemotherapy group and the trimodality therapy group. Propensity score matching (PSM) was used to balance the clinical characteristics and reduce potential confounding effects.
Results: A total of 745 patients were selected, of which 515 received surgery + chemotherapy and 230 received trimodality therapy. For patients aged 50 to <65 years, additional radiotherapy showed better OS (3-year: 34.78% vs. 23.92%, P=0.02) and CSS (3-year: 36.15% vs. 25.46%, P=0.04) compared to surgery + chemotherapy. Similar results were observed after PSM (3-year OS: 38.76% vs. 26.53%, P=0.02; 3-year CSS: 40.49% vs. 26.92%, P=0.02). No significant benefit of radiotherapy was seen for patients aged <50 and ≥65 years, both before and after PSM.
Conclusions: Our findings reveal that trimodality therapy is associated with better OS and CSS compared to surgery + chemotherapy for patients aged 50 to <65 years. These patients might obtain a benefit from additional radiotherapy.

Keywords: Pleural mesothelioma (PM); Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER); age; trimodality therapy

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21037/jtd-24-1111

Ann Case Rep. 2024 Mar 22. 9(2):

Mesothelioma Cases in the World Trade Center Survivors.

Muhammed E Yilmaz, Mahsan Rashidfarokhi, Kenna Pollard, Nedim Durmus, Sefa Keserci, Daniel H Sterman, Alan A Arslan, Yongzhao Shao, Joan Reibman.

Objectives: The destruction of the World Trade Center (WTC) towers in New York City on September 11, 2001 (9/11), released approximately 1 million tons of pulverized particulate matter throughout southern Manhattan and areas in Brooklyn, exposing community members and responders to high levels of potentially toxic environmental particles. Asbestos exposure was a health concern because of its use in certain sections of the WTC towers. Malignant mesothelioma, originating from the lining cells (mesothelium) of the peritoneal and pleural cavities, is one complication associated with asbestos exposure.
Methods: The WTC Environmental Health Center (WTC EHC) is a treatment and surveillance program for community members (Survivors) exposed to WTC dust and fumes.
Results: In this report, we describe four cases of mesothelioma in the WTC EHC as of July 1st, 2023. Two of our patients have been diagnosed with peritoneal mesothelioma and two patients have been diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma.
Conclusion: Given the known delay in the development of mesotheliomas after asbestos exposure, we provide information on these early mesothelioma cases to enhance the understanding of the adverse health effects of WTC exposures on the local community.

Keywords: Mesothelioma; September 11th; WTC Environmental Health Center; World Trade Center (WTC)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.29011/2574-7754.101709

NAR Cancer. 2024 Dec;6(4): zcae045

Expanded detection and impact of BAP1 alterations in cancer.

Ian R Sturgill, Jesse R Raab, Katherine A Hoadley.

Aberrant expression of the BAP1 (BRCA associated protein 1) tumor suppressor gene is a prominent risk factor for several tumor types and is important in tumor evolution and progression. Here we performed integrated multi-omics analyses using data from The Cancer Genome Atlas for 33 cancer types and over 10 000 individuals to identify alterations leading to BAP1 disruption. We combined existing variant calls and new calls derived from a de novo local realignment pipeline across multiple independent variant callers, increasing somatic variant detection by 41% from 182 to 257, including 11 indels ≥40 bp. The expanded detection of mutations highlights the power of new tools to uncover longer indels and impactful mutations. We developed an expression-based BAP1 activity score and identified a transcriptional profile associated with BAP1 disruption in cancer. BAP1 has been proposed to play a critical role in controlling tumor plasticity and normal cell fate. Leveraging human and mouse liver datasets, BAP1 loss in normal cells resulted in lower BAP1 activity scores and lower scores were associated with a less-differentiated phenotype in embryonic cells. Together, our expanded BAP1 mutant samples revealed a transcriptional signature in cancer cells, supporting BAP1's influences on cellular plasticity and cell identity maintenance.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/narcan/zcae045