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.