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The Formidable Metamorphosis of the Salamander’s Wool: Asbestos from Eternal Material to Awful Pathologies

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The First Outstanding 50 Years of “Università Politecnica delle Marche”

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Abstract

In Italy, asbestos has been extensively used from 1945 to 1992. The Eternit settlements were widespread across Italy, and Ancona was one of the cities where asbestos was highly used. Ancona University was founded in 1969 and the Occupational Medicine Institute as part of Ancona hospital in collaboration with the Clinic Oncology mainly focused on asbestos-related diseases, both benign (asbestosis and pleural plaques) and malignant diseases such as malignant mesothelioma and lung cancer. Far in 1995, Governa and colleagues first evaluated ‘in vitro’ the biological effect of asbestos fibers. The studies carried on the asbestos carcinogenicity further contributed to identify biomarkers as indicators of cancer risk. Recently, new molecular biomarkers have been identified which can detect the malignancy at early stage, and the biomarker combination further improved the performance in the diagnosis of malignant mesothelioma. The prognostic performance status, and response to first-line chemotherapy was also evaluated in asbestos-related malignancies, and new molecular targets and therapeutic approach have been proposed.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical and Molecular Sciences, Occupational Medicine, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy

    Lory Santarelli, Marco Tomasetti, Massimo Bracci, Monica Amati, Matteo Valentino & Ernesta Pieragostini

  2. Department of Clinical and Molecular Sciences, Medical Oncology, Università Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy

    Silvia Rinaldi & Rossana Berardi

Authors
  1. Lory Santarelli
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  2. Marco Tomasetti
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  3. Massimo Bracci
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  4. Monica Amati
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  5. Matteo Valentino
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  6. Ernesta Pieragostini
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  7. Silvia Rinaldi
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  8. Rossana Berardi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lory Santarelli .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Information Engineering (DII), Marche Polytechnic University, Ancona, Italy

    Sauro Longhi

  2. Department of Information Engineering (DII), Marche Polytechnic University, Ancona, Italy

    Andrea Monteriù

  3. Department of Information Engineering (DII), Marche Polytechnic University, Ancona, Italy

    Alessandro Freddi

  4. Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences (D3A), Marche Polytechnic University, Ancona, Italy

    Lucia Aquilanti

  5. Ospedali Riuniti di Ancona, Ancona, Italy

    Maria Gabriella Ceravolo

  6. Department of Life and Environmental Sciences (DISVA), Marche Polytechnic University, Ancona, Italy

    Oliana Carnevali

  7. Department of Life and Environmental Sciences (DISVA), Marche Polytechnic University, Ancona, Italy

    Mario Giordano

  8. Ospedali Riuniti di Ancona, Ancona, Italy

    Gianluca Moroncini

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Santarelli, L. et al. (2020). The Formidable Metamorphosis of the Salamander’s Wool: Asbestos from Eternal Material to Awful Pathologies. In: Longhi, S., et al. The First Outstanding 50 Years of “Università Politecnica delle Marche”. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33832-9_20

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33832-9_20

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