Global Mesothelioma Deaths Remain High Despite Poor Data

An estimated 38,400 people around the world will die this year from mesothelioma cancer, according to a report recently published in Occupational & Environmental Medicine. The estimation by the international peer-reviewed journal included 230 countries. Data used for the study came from the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Mortality Database and extrapolated information based on gender- and age-specific death rates. “The global burden of mesothelioma is real,” Dr. Ken Takahashi, director of Asbestos Diseases Research Institute, University of Sydney Gate 3, Australia, told Asbestos.com. “It is visible in the developed world but hidden and unrealized in the still-developing world.” Takahashi is the senior author of a team of scientists and doctors from Japan, Australia, United States, United Kingdom, Thailand and Singapore who used 1994-2014 data to complete the report. Mesothelioma, a relatively rare and aggressive cancer caused almost exclusively by exposure to asbestos, has no definitive cure. Reliable Mesothelioma Data Is Rare Researchers determined only 59 countries kept reliable data on mesothelioma deaths, while 45 countries had poor quality data, and 126 countries reported no data on mesothelioma. “There were a lot of surprises, in a sense. Countries where there had been a lot of asbestos exposure, but very few recorded deaths from mesothelioma,” Dr. Christina Fitzmaurice, University of Washington Medicine, hematologist, oncologist and co-author, told...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - Category: Environmental Health Authors: Tags: Asbestos Diseases Research Institute asbestos-related lung cancer Australia mesothelioma Bangladesh Dr. Christina Fitzmaurice Dr. Ken Takahashi Global Burden of Disease Mesothelioma death rate mesothelioma latency period mesothelioma uni Source Type: news