Role of asbestos in etiology of malignant pleural mesothelioma.

The evidence presented in this article demonstrates that asbestos fibers may be genotoxic to mesothelial cells through their distinctive structure and chemistry and through their interactions with complex cellular response mechanisms. Reactive oxygen and nitrogen species play a key role. Understanding the balance between these complex mechanisms that permit neoplastic transformation and facilitate the proliferation of tumor cells is the focus of current investigation in the development of mesothelial malignancy. In human disease, the persistence of asbestos fibers in the lung and pleural tumor is a critical feature that links the exposure to asbestos with the development of disease.