However, in the study of Girardelli et al. NLRP1 and NRLP3 polymorphisms have been evaluated in patients with mesothelioma and controls living in a geographic area known to be at risk of asbestos exposure, while in our study both mesothelioma patients and controls had documented asbestos exposure (see Additional file 4: Table S2 for details), so our genetic analysis has been performed on more homogeneous cohorts. This evidence concerns the gene NLRP1 and mesothelioma.