Mesotheliomas Attributed to Cell Replication Errors
Tomasetti & Vogelstein (2015) described how many cancers were not preventable. The authors purported to show that “[t]he majority of cancer is due to ‘bad luck,’ that is, random mutations arising during DNA replication in normal, noncancerous stem cells.” Tomasetti, et al. (2017) went further. The authors examined many more cancers, including mesothelioma. They found most mesotheliomas…
Is Cigarette Smoking a Cause of Mesothelioma?
It is plausible that cigarette smoking could cause mesothelioma. There are many carcinogens in cigarette smoke that cause other cancers. And, historically, most people who developed mesothelioma were also smokers. Thus, there are thousands of case reports and case series of smokers who developed mesothelioma. If smoking is not a cause by itself, it certainly…
Mesothelioma Diagnoses on Asbestos Workers’ Death Certificates Are Often Wrong
Many occupational cohort studies rely upon the cause of death listed on death certificates for assessing cancer. Yet this information is often not accurate. See, e.g., Wissing, et al. (2019); Tan (2019). This is particularly relevant when assessing mesothelioma incidence. Boffetta, et al. (2018) illustrates the potential for misclassifying mesothelioma. The authors “searched medical and pathology records and specimens…