Due to environmental
asbestos exposure,
asbestos related
lung diseases are common in Eskisehir district of Anatolia. In this study we aimed both to determine the epidemiological findings of the patients diagnosed as
bronchial carcinoma and to discuss the features, which were probably related to
asbestos exposure, presented by the patients. From May 1997 to December 2000, 301 cases were included in the study. Of the patients, 97 (32.2%) had epidermoid cell type, 84 (27.9%) had small cell, 39 (13%) had
adenocarcinoma, 4 (1.3%) had large cell.
Adenocarcinomas were more frequent in women. There were not significant differences among the cell types from the point of view of the age distributions.
Adenocarcinomas were more frequently located in lower lobes of the lungs (36.9%) and more frequently showed peripheral locations (45.9%) than other cell types (20.6% for epidermoid and 14.6% for small cell).
Pleural effusion was more detected in
adenocarcinomas (48.7% to 17.3% in epidermoid, 18.3% in small cell). The duration of smoking was shortest in
adenocarcinomas, mean 32.4 years; the same duration was 56.2 years for
epidermoid carcinomas. Of the patients, 54% had
asbestos exposure.
Adenocarcinomas were more frequently detected in the patients who exposed to
asbestos but did not
smoke. Our findings support that
asbestos exposure may increase adenocancer frequency. The epidemiological and clinical features of adenocancer cases exposed to
asbestos environmentally were not different than those of adenocancer cases exposed to
asbestos occupationally.