Asbestos and cancer in Finland.

Cancer mortality of men with diagnosed asbestosis was studied in Finland. Of the 174 men registered as having asbestosis, 56 had died before 1977, whereas the number of expected deaths based on the Finnish male population was only 23.4. The respective figures for lung cancer were 19 observed and 2.1 expected. The mean age of these 19 lung cancer patients was 57.8 yr, and lung cancer was the cause of death (underlying cause) in 35% of all diseased men with asbestosis. The proportion of lung cancer mortality from all deaths among Finnish men 55-64 yr old is 10.8%, which is clearly lower than that among the men with asbestosis. No excess of other malignancies was found in Finland among workers with asbestosis.