Pleural mesothelioma and asbestos exposure: a case-control study with quantitative risk assessment--response to Marsh and Benson's letter

Marsh and Benson1 commented on our paper and the associated correspondence with Boffetta highlighting two issues.2–4

First, they questioned our exposure–response analyses because we had not always used the same reference categories. We repeated all secondary analyses reported in our online supplementary tables S1 and S2 by using the same reference as in our main analysis (table 1). Risk estimates by exposure category are consistent with our main analysis results (see table 2 of our paper), confirming the exposure–response trend for pleural malignant mesothelioma irrespective of the route of exposure (occupation or environment). Owing to space constraints, we are only showing our new results for occupational and environmental exposures, but all other findings were similar, including those stratified by probability of exposure (definite, probable, possible).

Table 1

Case–control study on pleural mesothelioma in the Casale Monferrato area

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