Smoking habits and risk of cancers other than lung cancer: 28 years' follow-up of 26,000 Norwegian men and women

Cancer Causes Control. 1996 Sep;7(5):497-506. doi: 10.1007/BF00051881.

Abstract

The impact of tobacco smoking on lung cancer risk has been investigated thoroughly since the 1950s, but other types of cancer also have been associated with smoking. In the present study, the aim was to explore the variation in risk connected with cigarette, cigar, and pipe smoking of suspected smoking-associated cancers other than lung cancer. Data were obtained from a survey of a random sample of the Norwegian population. A self-administered mailed questionnaire, which included questions about smoking habits, was completed by 26,000 men and women in 1965 (response rate: 76 percent). The cohort was followed from 1966 through 1993, including registration of all incident cancer cases. A dose-response relationship of cigarette smoking to the risk of urinary bladder cancer and cancers of the upper digestive and respiratory tract was observed. For the latter forms of cancer, a dose-response relationship of pipe smoking also was observed. In cancer of the pancreas, a stronger association between cigarette smoking and cancer risk was observed when the analysis was confined to histologically confirmed cases only. Current cigarette smokers at baseline had a significantly higher risk of cervical cancer than those who never smoked cigarettes. In cancers of the stomach, colon, rectum, breast, corpus uteri, ovary, and prostate, and in leukemia, no association between smoking and cancer risk was observed.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Breast Neoplasms / epidemiology
  • Cohort Studies
  • Colonic Neoplasms / epidemiology
  • Digestive System Neoplasms / epidemiology
  • Female
  • Follow-Up Studies
  • Humans
  • Incidence
  • Leukemia / epidemiology
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Neoplasms / epidemiology*
  • Ovarian Neoplasms / epidemiology
  • Pancreatic Neoplasms / epidemiology
  • Prostatic Neoplasms / epidemiology
  • Rectal Neoplasms / epidemiology
  • Respiratory Tract Neoplasms / epidemiology
  • Risk Factors
  • Smoking / epidemiology*
  • Stomach Neoplasms / epidemiology
  • Surveys and Questionnaires
  • Sweden / epidemiology
  • Urinary Bladder Neoplasms / epidemiology
  • Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / epidemiology
  • Uterine Neoplasms / epidemiology