University of Western Australia researchers recently completed a 50-year review, originally published in Occupational and Environmental Medicine, where they compared the differences in asbestos exposure histories between biphasic, epithelioid, and sarcomatoid mesothelioma patients listed in the Western Australian Mesothelioma Registry. The School of Population Health at the University of Western Australia’s Dr. Peter Franklin, lead author of the study, said the study showed that:

“There was no strong evidence of a consistent role of asbestos exposure indicators in determining the histological subtype of malignant mesothelioma."

Medical professionals had already established that the histological subtype of mesothelioma is a key factor when determining the survival times of patients. For example, sarcomatoid mesothelioma tends to me the most aggressive and difficult to treat, while epithelioid mesothelioma is often more responsive to treatment when compared to the other two subtypes of this cancer.

Researchers are still working to understand how asbestos exposure factors like the type of asbestos the patient was exposed to and to what degree they were exposed are associated with the different subtypes.