Asbestosis: A marker for the increased risk of lung cancer among workers exposed to asbestos

This review examines the hypothesis that excess lung cancer risk in worker cohorts exposed to asbestos occurs only among those with asbestosis. The ad equately designed studies in the literature support this hypothesis. The su mmary relative risk for lung cancer was 1.00 in seven cohorts with no death s from asbestosis. In addition, there is a high correlation between asbesto sis rates and lung cancer rates in 38 cohorts in contrast to a poor correla tion between cumulative exposure data and lung cancer relative risks in eig ht cohorts with adequate data. The evidence indicates that asbestosis is a much better predictor of excess lung cancer risk than measures of exposure and serves as a marker for attributable cases.