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Asbestos is a known cancer-causing agent, but physicians and medical researchers have not discovered a strong link between asbestos exposure and the group of cancers known as leukemia. However, a number of isolated cases and reports do document patients who have had both leukemia and clinical symptoms of asbestos exposure.
One such report, published in 1988, documents two patients with acute myelocytic leukemia who also had a “long history of exposure to asbestos.”[1] A biopsy of their lungs and bone marrow showed “significant numbers of asbestos bodies.” However, after bone marrow specimens were taken from a control group with similar occupational histories, no asbestos fibers were found.
Another patient case, this one published in 2012, documented a 57 year-old patient with a history of asbestos exposure who later developed chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).[2] CT scans revealed heavy pleural plaques that are commonly seen in individuals with a history of heavy asbestos exposure.
The same 2012 U.S. case report notes an Italian study in deceased patients who had malignant pleural mesothelioma. Of 169 necropsies performed within this group, 5 had non-Hodgkin lymphoma or CLL. In light of this evidence and evidence from lab studies, the report concludes that there may be an association between asbestos-related inflammation and carcinogenic (cancerous) mutation of the cells.
Even despite these occasional links, many co-occurring instances of asbestos-related diseases and leukemia diagnoses could be related to multiple occupational exposures. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC), for instance, noted that workers at the U.S. Department of Energy Savannah River Site nuclear power plant had a higher likelihood of developing both leukemia and asbestos-related cancers.[3] The CDC literature suggests that radiation exposure could be the likely cause of leukemia rather than asbestos exposure.
An extensive review of literature mentioning either asbestos exposure or common leukemia diagnoses found that only 3 of the 35 reports reviewed mentioned leukemia.[4] The review came to the conclusion that “there is no increased risk of NHL or other HLCAs associated with asbestos exposure.”
Nevertheless, the link between asbestos exposure and leukemia has not been outright refuted. Some medical experts, like the authors of a 2004 patient case study, still remain convinced that “asbestos remains the sole possible connection to both malignancies” in certain cases.[5]
[1] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/20316439_Acute_myelocytic_leukemia_after_exposure_to_asbestos
[2] http://www.hematologyandoncology.net/files/2013/05/ho1112_chintapatla1.pdf
[3] https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/oerp/savannah-mortality/
[4] https://www.clinical-lymphoma-myeloma-leukemia.com/article/S1526-9655(11)70243-3/abstract
[5] http://ar.iiarjournals.org/content/25/1B/429.abstract
