Abstract

Objective: Malignant mesothelioma (MM) incidence is higher in our country, especially in some regions; however, there is no comprehensive epidemiological data about its frequency in our region.

Materials and Methods: With this study, it was aimed to determine MM cases and their demographic and clinical characteristics, who are diagnosed in our hospital between January 1994 and May 2006, according to our hospital records retrospectively.

Results: In the study period, a total of 45 cases were diagnosed as MM, either as malignant pleural mesothelioma (86.7%) or malignant peritoneal mesothelioma (13.3%). Of the cases, 24 were male and 21 were female, with an average age of 56. Most of the cases were admitted from Erzurum (60 %) and the remaining from the adjacent cities. The number of cases who are admitted from Erzurum was more in some locations in Erzurum. Most of the cases (77.8%) were living in rural areas. There was no increasing trend of disease frequency by years and an increased use of diagnostic thoracoscopy was observed in recent years.

Conclusion: Environmental exposure is thought to be responsible in the development MM in our region because none of our cases had an occupational exposure history. Although our cases were admitted from different regions, an increased number in some regions suggested that there may be an environmental risk factor in those regions.