According to medical literature, the earliest mention of a tumor in the
lining of the lungs (pleura) was made in 1767 by Joseph Lieutaud, the founder
of pathologic anatomy in France. In a publication detailing the study of some
3,000 autopsies he performed, Lieutaud mentioned two cases of “pleural tumors.”
In one, he found fleshy masses adherent to the pleura and the ribs of a
deceased boy.
In 1819, René-Théophile-Hyacinthe Laennec, the French physician who invented
the stethoscope, suggested that malignancy could arise from the pleura, based
upon his understanding of the nature of pleural cells.
However, in 1843, Karl Freiherr von Rokitansky, professor of
pathological anatomy at Vienna University challenged that notion, stating that
pleural cancer was always secondary to a primary cancer
elsewhere in the body.
In 1943, H.W. Wedler was the first to report a connection between
asbestosis and cancer of the pleura among German asbestos workers. Twenty
percent of the workers had developed cancer, with lung cancer being more common
than mesothelioma. Wedler’s study was well received in Germany, but the
political climate at the time caused the rest of the world to ignore research
coming from Nazi Germany.
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