"True incidence rates of mesothelioma in Russia are unknown. We reviewed 889 works of Russian-speaking scientists published from 1881 till 2006. For the 126 years (1871-2006) 3,603 mesotheliomas were diagnosed in Russia. 1,348 (37.4%) were male and 1,125 (31.4%) were females. In 1130 (31.4%) the sex is not specified. The age of cases varied from 6 months to 93 years (meaning, 48.3). 3,494 (97.0%) cases were malignant and 109 (3.0%) were benign mesotheliomas. 3,040 (84.4%) were pleural mesotheliomas, 366 (10.2%) were peritoneal, 162 (4.5%) were pericardial, 29 (0.8%) were mesotheliomas of tunica vaginalis testis, 5 other localizations, and 1 was unspecified mesothelioma. 51 (1.4%) mesotheliomas were diagnosed in XIXth century. 223 (6.2%) cases were diagnosed in first half of 20th century, 2,995 (83.1%) in the second half, and in the beginning of the 21st century it was 334 (9.3%) cases. For period of observation mesotheliomas were diagnosed in 64 (71.9%) of 89 areas of the country. First 17 mesotheliomas were registered 16 years before the modern mining of asbestos in Russia (1886). Asbestos exposure was reported only for 56 (1.6%) cases. Not a single case of asbestosis cases develop mesothelioma, congenital or familial mesothelioma has been described in Russia. During the XXth century only 6 epidemiologic studies of mesothelioma were carried out in Russia: local in towns Asbest, Ekaterinburg and St. Petersburg, and regional in Republic of Karelia, Sverdlovsk Region and Altaysky Krai. In 1990s mesothelioma morbidity in Russia was in the range of 0.2 (Ukraine) to 4.2 (Altaysky Krai) cases per million a year."

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