Asbestos Related Lung Cancer

Lung cancer, or bronchial carcinoma, occurs in several forms. The most common causes of lung cancer are smoking and asbestos. This web site has focused on the most lethal of the lung cancers - mesothelioma. Not every asbestos-related lung cancer, however, is a mesothelioma. Other thoracic carcinomas, such as adenocarcinoma, are also caused by exposure to asbestos.

The connection between asbestos exposure and lung cancer was noted as early as 1925, and confirmed over the next 70 years by many epidemiologic studies of asbestos-exposed workers. The four main types of commercially used asbestos, chrysotile, amosite, anthophyllite, and mixtures containing crocidolite, have all been associated with an increased risk of lung cancer. About one in seven people who suffer from asbestosis, a lung disease resulting from high exposure to asbestos, eventually develop lung cancer.

There is a relationship between cigarette smoking and asbestos exposure in causing lung cancer, such is that asbestos workers who smoke face a much higher risk than asbestos workers who do not. According to the National Cancer Institute, evidence suggests that asbestos-exposed workers who quit smoking can reduce their risk of developing lung cancer by 50% within five years of quitting.