A team of Turkish and US doctors has received a US award of $100,000 for advances in cancer research related to their work in Cappadocia, Turkey.  Lead researcher Michele Carbone and his team of international collaborators have discovered a unique mesothelioma epidemic in three Turkish villages in Cappadocia and have demonstrated that it is caused by a genetic predisposition to mineral fiber carcinogenesis, a gene-environment interaction.

An article published by the team stated that the unprecedented mesothelioma epidemic causes 50 percent of all deaths in three small villages in Cappadocia.   The article said: “Initially linked solely to the exposure to a fibrous mineral, erionite, recent studies by scientists from Turkey and the United States have shown that erionite causes mesothelioma mostly in families that are genetically predisposed to mineral fiber carcinogenesis.”

The genetic link to mesothelioma is an intriguing development, although it means little to the tens of thousands of people already afflicted as a result of mining or working with asbestos.  The fact that this comparatively rare disease is responsible for half the deaths in the area of these villages is astonishing.

It is a recognized fact that some people are exposed to asbestos through naturally occurring “hot spots” and contract the disease even though they have never knowingly had exposure to asbestos.  However about ten percent of all mesothelioma cases are generally believed to be as a result of this type of exposure.  The discovery of this epidemic in Turkey suggests that naturally occurring asbestos may be a much more common occurrence than once thought.

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