ABSTRACT
When we tried to nd literature on the relationship between asbestos and various diseases, we found that very little work has been done in this eld, with the exception of mesothelioma. We also found that very little is written about the kinds and amounts of asbestos involved in which of the three known pathological subtypes of malignant mesotheliomas (about 50-60% is epithelioid mesothelioma, about 10% is sarcomatoid mesothelioma, and about 30% is mixed/biphasic mesothelioma) [2,3]. The incidence of pleural mesothelioma in the lungs is 67-75%, and incidence of abdominal peritoneal mesothelioma is 25-33%, while less than 10% appears in the pericardium, brain, and other parts of the body. According to a study at Harvard University’s Brigham Women’s Hospital, the pathological diagnosis of one of the three specic subtypes of malignant mesothelioma made before biopsy had a relatively high percentage of errors [2].
