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History of Mesothelioma

The history of mesothelioma is a long and complex story filled with controversies that span hundreds of years of medical investigation. Before mesothelioma was identified and categorized as a distinct type of cancer, past generations of medical and scientific experts grappled with understanding where mesothelioma originated in the body and how it progressed once it struck.

Because it was rare and not understood, this fatal cancer went misdiagnosed for years. A long history of studies culminated in a better – though still not complete – understanding of the cancer. Doctors now have answers to once elusive questions: what causes this fatal illness and who is at risk?

Mesothelioma united states diagnosed rate

Today, doctors know that exposure to asbestos causes the cancer to develop in the lining of the lungs. Still, there is no known cure for the cancer. Once mesothelioma is diagnosed, the medical prognosis is usually bleak, generally causing death within four to 15 months. If you would like more information about mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases, request a free informational packet.

Mesothelioma Timeline

Pathologists working independently in countries across the globe linked asbestos to mesothelioma, pleural malignancies and respiratory cancer as early as the mid-1930s.

Mesothelioma Timeline

Early Discoveries & Theories

According to medical literature, the earliest mention of a possible tumor of the chest wall (the pleura) was made in 1767 by Joseph Lieutaud, the founder of pathologic anatomy in France. In a publication detailing the study of some 3,000 autopsies he performed, Lieutaud mentioned two cases of “pleural tumors.”

In one, he found fleshy masses adherent to the pleura and the ribs of a deceased boy. In 1819, René-Théophile-Hyacinthe Laennec, the French physician who invented the stethoscope, suggested that malignancy could arise from the pleura, based upon his understanding of the nature of pleural cells.

However, in 1843, Karl Freiherr von Rokitansky, professor of Pathological Anatomy at Vienna University challenged that notion, stating that pleural cancer was always secondary to a primary cancer elsewhere in the body.

Regardless of the lack of compelling evidence, this became the accepted theory of the medical establishment for many years. (Ironically, von Rokitansky later described primary tumors of the peritoneum, likely the first recorded cases of peritoneal mesothelioma.)

Mesothelioma & Asbestos Exposure: Debates & Conclusions

Over the next several decades, various theories about the nature of mesothelioma arose. By the end of the 19th century, experts still disagreed whether this form of cancer began in the lymphatic system and spread to the lungs and abdomen or whether it started from tumors elsewhere in the body.

Doctors also debated whether the cancerous tumors did indeed arise from the mesothelial lining of the pleura and peritoneum themselves.  And because research was hampered by the low number of mesothelioma patients, it was difficult to reach a consensus based on so little clinical data.

But by the early 1900s, the medical community began to finally accept that cancers could originate in the pleura without having spread from a primary cancer elsewhere in the body.

Fast Fact:

Mesothelioma is a rare form of cancer in which malignant cells form in the lining of the lungs (pleura), the lining of the abdominal cavity (peritoneum) or the lining around the heart (pericardium).

In 1909, J.G. Adami coined the term for these types of cancers: mesothelioma. Then in 1931, P. Klemperer and C.B. Rabin established a framework for diagnosing the disease and understanding its pathology.

It was during this time that doctors began to question the causes of mesothelioma, and in 1935, London pathologist Steven Gloyne suggested a possible connection between mesothelioma and occupational asbestos exposure.

Find out more about the different types of mesothelioma cancer.

Historical Studies of Asbestos Exposure & Mesothelioma

In the following decades, the disease became the focus of closer studies, as thousands of workers all over the world died from exposure to the mineral's toxic dust. In 1970 alone, 602 Americans workers died of mesothelioma, a cancer that remains latent in the body for 20 to 50 years. 

South African Study

South African crocidolite asbestosSouth African crocidolite asbestos

Perhaps the most important study that demonstrated the unmistakable connection between asbestos exposure and mesothelioma was presented by medical researcher J.C. Wagner and physician Chris Sleggs. Sleggs was the medical superintendent of a chest and infectious disease hospital commissioned by the government of South Africa in 1948 in the country’s northwest Cape Province, where crocidolite asbestos was mined.

Wagner had been hired by the government’s Ministry of Mines to study occupational hazards associated with asbestos mining. During the course of his research, Sleggs found unusual pleural tumors in the bodies of asbestos workers.

In their paper published by the British Journal of Medicine in 1960, Sleggs and Wagner detailed 33 cases of mesothelioma they discovered, with all but one case having a proven asbestos exposure history. In eight cases, the exposure history was occupational. The rest of the mesothelioma victims merely lived near the mines for most of their lives.

American Study

Other studies followed, most notably the 1964 report of the American physician, Dr. Irving J. Selikoff. He presented his findings at the “Biological Effects of Asbestos” conference, sponsored by the New York Academy of Science. For more than a year, Selikoff examined more than 1,000 workers from the Union Asbestos & Rubber Company plant in Patterson, New Jersey – workers whose jobs included producing asbestos insulation materials for the U.S. Navy.

Selikoff found that the mortality rate among these employees was 25 percent higher than would be expected statistically and that the deceased workers had died from a variety of diseases, including asbestosis, malignant mesothelioma and other cancers of the lung, stomach, colon, rectal and colorectal.

British Study

Another study by British physician, Molly Newhouse, found mesothelioma cases among people who lived near, but were not employed by, a London asbestos factory. By 1968, the British Medical Journal claimed asbestos was the direct cause of most cases of mesothelioma (even though controversy still raged as to what types of asbestos were the most carcinogenic – a contentious argument that still echoes to this day).

But after many years of research, conjecture and controversy, most of the world’s medical establishment had unequivocally accepted two important facts about mesothelioma:

  1. The disease was a distinct diagnostic entity.
  2. The association between the disease and asbestos exposure had been proven conclusively.

Need More Information about Mesothelioma?

As doctors conclusively linked mesothelioma to asbestos exposure, some powerful economic and societal forces still argued otherwise. These arguments were made by the asbestos industry itself, which was a multi-billion dollar industry that for decades tried to deny asbestos was the cause of any of the crippling diseases that afflicted thousands of workers and others worldwide who were exposed to the toxic mineral.

If you have a history of asbestos exposure and would like more information about mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases, call (800) 615-2270 to speak with one of our Patient Advocates.

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