Quality of evidence must guide risk assessment of asbestos, by Lenters, V; Burdorf, A; Vermeulen, R; Stayner, L; Heederik, D

摘要

In 2011, Lenters et al. (2011) published a meta-analysis of the relationship between asbestos exposure and consequent lung cancer risk. In 2012, this journal published a critique (Berman and Case, 2012) of the meta-analysis, together with a response (Lenters et al, 2012) by (most of) the original authors. This letter examines some statistical issues raised in this exchange, and suggests that the main finding of the original meta-analysis is less robust than claimed, and should be interpreted cautiously. Lenters et al. performed their calculations in SAS, using a random effects approach and estimating between study variance using restricted maximum likelihood. The present calculations are made on the same basis, but using the R package 'metafor' (Viechtbauer, 2010).