| | |

Odds of Surviving Mesothelioma Equal in Rural and Urban Australia

ByAlex Strauss
odds of surviving mesothelioma

Living in a city and having a better socioeconomic status does not necessarily increase the odds of surviving mesothelioma. 

That is the message from a 15-year Australian study of more than 300,000 cancer patients. 

Some studies suggest cancer survival rates are lower in rural areas. But that does not appear to be the case for mesothelioma in Australia. 

Unfortunately, the odds of surviving mesothelioma remain low no matter where a person lives.

The Legacy of Asbestos in Australia

Australia used to mine and export more asbestos than any other country. The mineral has been banned there since 2003, but Australian mesothelioma rates are still among the highest in the world. 

Asbestos fibers are biopersistent. Once they are embedded in the tissue, they never leave the body. By the time a patient receives a mesothelioma diagnosis, the odds of surviving mesothelioma for more than 18 months are low.  

Australia’s mesothelioma cases came in waves. The first wave included asbestos mine workers, their families, and people who lived near mines. The second wave occurred among construction and demolition workers exposed to asbestos in buildings.

Public health officials say the third wave is happening among homeowners who fail to protect themselves during DIY home improvement projects. Australia has launched media campaigns to educate homeowners. Earlier diagnosis improves the odds of surviving mesothelioma. 

Location and The Odds of Surviving Mesothelioma

Researchers with the Cancer Council of Victoria found 331,302 cases of cancer in the region between 2001 and 2015. Pleural mesothelioma was one of 30 cancers represented.

People living outside the cities had lower survival for 11 kinds of cancer. But the odds of surviving mesothelioma, uterus, or small intestine cancer stayed the same in the country and the city.

People in rural areas tend to be poorer than those in cities. When the researchers adjusted for the differences in socieconomic status, survival rates for many cancers went down. 

“The observed differences in survival decreased for most cancers and disappeared for colorectal cancer, but they remained largely unchanged for cancers of esophagus, stomach, liver, pancreas, lung, connective/soft tissue, ovary and kidney,” the researchers write. 

The odds of surviving mesothelioma were unaffected by patients’ finances. 

The finding suggests that asbestos cancer is uniformly deadly. However, some US studies show longer mesothelioma survival among people living near academic cancer centers. This seems to be related to the experience level of doctors in these centers. 

Larger cancer centers are also more likely to offer mesothelioma clinical trials, which have been shown to improve the odds of surviving mesothelioma.

Source:

Afshar, N, et al, “Differences in cancer survival by remoteness of residence: an analysis of data from a population-based cancer registry”, April 30, 2020, Cancer Causes and Control, Epub ahead of print, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10552-020-01303-2

Similar Posts

  • |

    Mesothelioma Still Rising Despite Ban in Ireland

    ByAlex Strauss

    A study in Ireland confirms that it can take many years for a ban on asbestos to have a measurable impact on a country’s rates of malignant mesothelioma. Mesothelioma is the most serious of a list of diseases – including lung cancer, pleural plaques, asbestosis, and others – linked with exposure to asbestos dust. Affecting the linings around the lungs and other organs, mesothelioma is often resistant to most cancer treatments and may be fatal within a year of diagnosis. According to the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat, Ireland is one of 55 countries that have enacted some type of asbestos ban. However, although Ireland banned asbestos in 2000, a new study published in Cancer Epidemiology shows that incidence of the…

  • |

    Website Aims to Protect Homeowners from Mesothelioma

    ByAlex Strauss

    Australia’s Cancer Council is trying to educate home renovators about their risk for mesothelioma with a new e-learning course. Australia has one of the highest per capita rates of mesothelioma in the world, largely because of several asbestos mining operations that were once located there. Although asbestos has been banned from building products in Australia since 1989, asbestos-linked diseases like mesothelioma, lung cancer, and asbestosis continue to pose a serious health concern. While mesothelioma has traditionally occurred among people exposed to asbestos on the job, Australia is now bracing for another “wave” of mesothelioma victims among homeowners who encounter asbestos while doing their own renovation projects. Cancer Council Australia has launched “kNOw asbestos in your home” in an effort to…

  • | | |

    Mesothelioma Nurses Ready for New Cases in Australia

    ByAlex Strauss

    Australia is bracing for an expected new wave of mesothelioma cases in the next decade and the Lung Foundation of Australia is taking action now to get ready. The Foundation has paid for ten nurses from around the country to receive specialized training in helping patients and families cope with mesothelioma. The nurses, who have recently completed the training, are now equipped to lead treatment planning for these complex cancer patients and to help other nurses do the same. Pleural mesothelioma is an aggressive cancer that occurs in the lining around the lungs. It is caused by exposure to asbestos dust, a toxin that was once alarmingly prevalent in Australia where it was mined and heavily used in construction. Because…

  • | |

    Spanish Mesothelioma Deaths Likely to Continue for Decades

    ByAlex Strauss

    New research in Spain suggests that mesothelioma deaths will continue in the country until the “last surviving member” of the group of people exposed to occupational asbestos succumbs to the disease. Like many countries, Spain used asbestos heavily in the first half of the 20th century, especially in construction, where the mineral was prized for its durability, low cost, and resistance to fire and corrosion.  Asbestos was banned in Spain in 2002. Observing that more than 2.5 million metric tons of asbestos were imported into Spain from 1906 to 2002, researchers say deaths from mesothelioma have risen steadily. Between 1976 and 1980, a total of 491 Spanish people died of mesothelioma. By the 5-year period from 2006 to 2010, that…

  • |

    Mesothelioma Case Shows Danger of Accidental Asbestos Exposure

    ByAlex Strauss

    A mesothelioma case in Birmingham, England is a dramatic illustration of the very real danger of hidden asbestos. The widow of a physician who died of mesothelioma last year at the age of 51 claims her husband was exposed to asbestos just walking to and from his medical classes. Monisha Coelho believes that exposed asbestos insulation in the underground hallways that connect the University of Birmingham to buildings on the Queen Elizabeth Hospital campus triggered Dr. Ian Pardoe’s mesothelioma. In an article in the Birmingham Mail, Coelho explained how her husband decided how and where the deadly exposure had occurred. “Ian thought long and hard about where he might have come into contact with asbestos,” Coelho told the paper. “He…

  • | | |

    Human Trials Planned for Promising New Mesothelioma Drug

    ByAlex Strauss

    The Australian Asbestos Diseases Research Institute says it is ready to begin human trials on what its lead researcher calls the first significant advance in mesothelioma treatment in a decade. More than three years in development, TargomiRs utilizes a unique ‘minicell’ delivery system to insert a synthetic form of missing genetic material into mesothelioma cells. Like a number of other types of cancer, mesothelioma cells are missing a family of microRNAs critical to regulating the cellular life cycle. TargomiRs restores these microRNAs. In mice with human-derived mesothelioma, TargomiRs produced a “remarkable inhibition of tumour growth”, according to the Asbestos Diseases Research Institute. “The last significant development in the treatment of mesothelioma occurred ten years ago,” ADRI director Nico van Zandwijk…