§ Lord AVEBURYasked Her Majesty's Government:
What recommendations have been made by the Medical Research Council's Pneumoconiosis Unit at Penarth, North Wales, concerning a survey of fatal cases of lung cancer to establish 1450WA the extent of misdiagnosis of mesothelioma.
§ Lord AVEBURYasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they have studied evidence from the Canadian Government survey showing that a significant number of deaths from mesothelioma are being diagnosed as lung cancer, and whether they will make a statement on the relevance of this evidence to United Kingdom mortality statistics.
§ The MINISTER of STATE, DEPARTMENT of EDUCATION and SCIENCE (Lord Crowther-Hunt)Mesothelioma is a rare type of cancer which, in the past, may not have been distinguished from other types of cancer. The Medical Research Council, through their Pneumoconiosis Unit at Penarth, are planning a more detailed study employing the latest methods for identification of asbestos in lung tissue. The Unit has close contact with groups in Canada studying death from mesothelioma and special surveys into the incidence of this type of cancer carried out in the United Kingdom, Canada and the USA to determine what proportion of these cancers can be related to past exposure to asbestos will be of value to the Council's unit in its study.
The Department of Health and Social Security advise me that it is sometimes very difficult to distinguish on clinical or pathological grounds between mesothelioma of the lung and carcinoma of the lung. Evidence being studied shows that misdiagnoses do occur, cases of mesothelioma of the lung being diagnosed as carcinoma of the lung and vice versa.
House adjourned at eighteen minutes past nine o'clock.