The number of workers developing a lethal form of cancer from exposure to asbestos will rapidly increase over the next decade, it was warned today.
Dr Ken O'Byrne, a leading consultant oncologist at St James's Hospital in Dublin, said that up to 300 people could be diagnosed with the disease in Ireland each year as the numbers of cases peak around 2015.
Since 1994 there have been 101 reported cases of pleural mesothelioma, an incurable cancer which develops in the lining of the lungs from exposure to asbestos. However, the senior consultant said: "This is almost certainly an under-representation of the extent of the problem."
Dr O'Byrne, the chairman of the British Thoracic Oncology Group, was speaking ahead of over 400 medical experts from all over Europe gathering in Dublin tomorrow for a three-day conference to explore new treatments.
There is currently no known cure for the disease.
Dr O'Byrne said the conference will be warned of research findings showing the numbers developing pleural mesothelioma were increasingly nationally and globally at a rapid pace. He said the cancer was estimated to peak around 2015 as the disease develops decades after the person is initially exposed to asbestos.
The mesothelioma is usually linked to people who have a history of working in industries with high exposure to asbestos fibres such as in shipping, mining or insulation-related jobs.
The numbers of people diagnosed with the disease in Northern Ireland is especially high due to the exposure of workers involved in ship building to asbestos. The rate of occurrence is second only to the numbers developing the cancer in Western Australia during the mid-1990s.
"Unfortunately this form of cancer is usually diagnosed at an advanced stage and many of the patients that we see have a life expectancy after diagnosis, of only a few months," Dr O'Byrne said.
Dr O'Byrne, who will be addressing the international conference tomorrow, said recently in a small number of patients the disease was caught early enough for surgical removal of the cancer and there were some long term survivors.
The Irish Cancer Society said that the results of many relatively small chemotherapy studies had shown encouraging effects. Professor Hilary Calvert from Newcastle General Hospital said that a study of a combination of two chemo drugs had recently shown that patients were likely to survive about three months longer than usual. "However we need more intensive research into mesothelioma if we are to see further development before the epidemic reaches its peak," she warned.
The event is being organised by the British Thoracic Oncology Group, the All Ireland Lung Cancer Forum, the Irish Cancer Society, the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer and the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer.