Skip to main content

Mesothelioma in Australia: Australian Mesothelioma Surveillance Program

The Australian Mesothelioma Surveillance Program (the program), as it finally became known, endeavoured to correct most of the weaknesses identified in the 1960s and 1970s in other such schemes throughout the world, viz, under-reporting of cases, uncertain diagnosis, poor elucidation of the role of occupational and environmental asbestos exposure and less than comprehensive coverage.

The program began on 1 January 1980 after preliminary work from 1977. Formal voluntary notification of cases was actively sought from a network of respiratory physicians, pathologists, general and thoracic surgeons, medical superintendents, medical records administrators, State and Territory departments of occupational health, cancer registries, compensation authorities or any other source. Notifications from other than the diagnosing physician were confirmed with him or her. After gaining the appropriate consents a full occupational and environmental history was obtained for each case, from either the patient or next-of-kin. The history taking was non-directive but included specific questions on asbestos exposure at the end. These histories were coded by two occupational hygienists, who naturally could not be blinded to case status. They also discussed cases together and were thus not independent.

The diagnosing pathologist was requested to provide slides and/or tissue specimens. These were circulated among a pathology panel for confirmation of diagnosis. Post-mortem examination was actively sought for in every case in order to confirm diagnosis and to obtain lung tissue free of tumour for lung fibre content analysis.

Year of presumptive diagnosis was the year in which mesothelioma was first suspected clinically. Year of definitive diagnosis was the year when pathology panel diagnosis was finalised. The panel of five members of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia reported individually on the diagnosis as definite, probable, possible and not mesothelioma. The level of consensus was good, with exact agreement or disagreement of only one category in 94% of cases. A scoring system of 1 (definite), 0.75 (probable), 0.5 (possible) and 0 (not mesothelioma) was used and the definitive score taken as the score nearest the mean of five. Panel members also classified mesothelioma cell type as epithelial, sarcomatous, mixed or not agreed.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The mesothelial cell

The mesothelial cells line the serosal cavities of the body, the pleural, peritoneal and pericardial spaces. Geographically, across the serosal surfaces, mesothelial cells canbe seen to have a variety of morphologies between flat or cuboidal and showing few or a dense forest of microvilli. Although their important in vivo functions have not been identified, they have the potential to regulate cell traffic, the balance between coagulation and fibrinolysis, cell proliferation, and fibrogenesis within and around the pleural space. They likely represent the progenitor cell for mesothelioma. In in vitro studies, the mesothelial cell demonstrates a multitude of abilities. Mesothelial cells can produce most of the components of the submesothelial matrix, at amounts comparable to that of fibroblasts. They can also release growth factors such as TGF-beta and insulin-like growth factorI. The cells may regulate the fibrinolytic and procoagulant activities on their cell surface and in the pleural ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Novel Molecular, Epidemiological, and Therapeutic Issues in Mesothelioma: The Role of SV40

The rise in mesothelioma cases that has occurred since 1950 has been associated with the widespread commercial use of asbestos. However, less than 10% of asbestos workers exposed to high levels of asbestos actually develop the disease, suggesting that additional factors may increase an individual’s susceptibility to the carcinogenic effects of asbestos. In addition, about 20% of mesotheliomas are not associated with asbestos exposure, suggesting that alternative factors may also cause mesothelioma. * The SV40 SV40 is a DNA tumour virus which was introduced into a significant portion of the human population between 1955 and 1963 through polio vaccines and adenovaccines contaminated with the virus. SV40 and human tumours The discovery that SV40 produced tumours in hamsters led to the PCR analysis of human mesotheliomas for the presence of SV40. Our group was the first to investigate whether there was any correlation between Polyomavirus and mesothelioma, and this was accom- plished in tw...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mesothelioma Article: FREE DOWNLOAD

M alignant mesothelioma is a 20th century phenomenon and as we begin a new century it is timely to review the clinical, research, epidemiological and legal aspects of this disease. I t is a canser, and canser is " a slang or slang-like term for any malignant growth or tumor caused by abnormal and uncontrolled cell division". Cancer affects people at all ages with the risk for most types increasing with age. Cancer caused about 13% of all human deaths in 2007 (7.6 million). T umor is derived, via the Old French tumour , from the Latin tumor "swelling". It originally meant an abnormal swelling of the flesh. In contemporary English, tumor is synonymous with solid neoplasm. A tumor may be benign, pre-malignant or malignant. The nature of the tumor is determined by a pathologist after examination of the tumor tissues from a biopsy or a surgical excision specimen. T he epidemic of mesothelioma has been seen throughout the world, not just in Australia. In Europe mesot...
Post a Comment
Read more