PERITONEAL MESOTHELIOMAS IN DANISH WOMEN - REVIEW OF HISTOPATHOLOGIC SLIDES AND HISTORY OF ABDOMINAL-SURGERY

An unexpectedly large number of peritoneal mesotheliomas among women w as reported to the Danish Cancer Registry during the years 1960 throug h 1985. In a case-control study, we tested whether this was due to dia gnostic misclassification or to direct exposure of the peritoneal memb ranes to talc during abdominal surgery. Tissue specimens were availabl e from 96 reported peritoneal mesotheliomas; 35 cases (37%) were regar ded as verified mesotheliomas, and 33 (34%) as possible mesotheliomas. Information on any intraabdominal surgery was obtained from the hospi tal records of these 68 cases and for 206 controls with a cancer of th e uterine corpus or pancreas. No association was seen between peritone al mesotheliomas and abdominal surgery performed more than 25 years pr ior to cancer diagnosis (odds ratio, 0.83; 95% confidence interval, 0. 35-1.94). Conclusion. Misclassification of other cancers was the reaso n for the observed excess of peritoneal mesotheliomas.