Prevalence of occupational exposure to asbestos and crystalline silica according to phenotypes of lung cancer from the CaProMat study: A case-only study

Abstract

Background: The objective of the study was to compare the prevalence of occupational exposure to asbestos and crystalline silica according to histological types of lung cancer and age at diagnosis.

Methods: CaProMat study is a pooled case-only study conducted between 1996 and 2011. The current study consisted of 6521 lung cancer cases. Occupational exposure to asbestos and crystalline silica was assessed by two Job-Exposure Matrices. A weighted prevalence of exposure was derived and compared according to histological types and age at diagnosis.

Results: There was no difference of weighted prevalence of exposure to asbestos and crystalline silica according to histological types of lung cancer. There was a statistically significant difference of weighted prevalence of exposure to asbestos and crystalline silica according to age at diagnosis.

Conclusions: Due to the limited clinical importance of the difference, neither the histological type, nor the age at diagnosis can be used as an indicator for the occupational exposure to asbestos or crystalline silica.

Keywords: asbestos; crystalline silica; histological types; lung cancer; smoking.