The History of Mesothelioma

The story of the discovery of this rare tumor and of the subsequent controversies that arose about its causation by specific forms of com­mercial asbestos is long and complex. It could fill an entire book. This chapter focuses on the early history of the discovery, from 1767 to 1900; on the histologic controversies, from 1900 to 1942; and on the diagnostic controversies and the role of asbestos, from 1943 to 1973 (Table 1.1). The period from 1972 through the 1980s and 1990s could be character­ized by advances in the industrial hygiene assessment of exposures, case-control studies, and other major epidemiologic studies concerning health effects in asbestos end-product users, paraoccupational expo­sures, household exposures, school and building exposures, and the role of specific asbestos fiber types, fiber characteristics, and lung fiber burden analysis. The 1970s to 1990s was also the period when the role of environmental exposure to erionite, tremolite, and ceramic fibers was discovered, and molecular and cellular biology focused on the characteristics of fiber carcinogenicity. In the final period, from the late 1990s to the present, the focus has been on the viral contribution to pathogenesis such as SV40 and human genetics and treatment strate­gies. The history of the discoveries after 1973 is covered by other authors in other chapters in this book.

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