Cigarette smoking and lung cancer cell types

Article Abstract:

Changes in smoking habits of Americans will ultimately result in alterations of the incidence and mortality of lung cancer. It is anticipated that the mortality from lung cancer will begin to fall among men for the first time in the 1990s. The death rate among women is expected to fall after the year 2000. However, not all lung cancers are affected equally by smoking. For example, smoking seems to play a greater role in the development of squamous cell carcinoma than adenocarcinoma of the lung. Furthermore, many researchers believe that the incidence of bronchoalveolar carcinoma, another form of lung cancer, is not related to smoking at all. A study of 851 men and 507 women with lung cancer was conducted to determine the influence of the actual smoking habits on the type of lung cancer. The rationale for such a study is that if smoking is an important determinant of the risk for a particular type of lung cancer, then there should be a strong dose effect. That is, the risk should be greater among people who smoke more, use unfiltered cigarettes, or smoke most of the cigarette. To evaluate the risk, the characteristics of the lung cancer patients were compared with matched controls; 888 men and 608 women constituted the group of patients with lung cancer. It was found that the risk of small cell lung cancer and oat cell carcinoma were more closely related to the number of cigarettes smoked than was the risk of adenocarcinoma. The risk of large cell lung cancer was unrelated to the number of cigarettes smoked. Curiously, the relationship of squamous cell lung cancer to the number of cigarettes smoked was weak among men but strong among women. At least some of the differences among the various types of lung cancers may stem from their occurrence in different lung regions, some of which receive more exposure to cigarette smoke than other. The results should also serve as a reminder, however, that smoking is not the sole determinant of lung cancer risk. So much attention has been paid to smoking as a tremendously important risk factor that other risk factors have been largely ignored for lung cancer. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Lung cancer, Cigarette smoke

---

Comparative epidemiology of cancer between the United States and Japan: a second look

Article Abstract:

Lifestyle, diet, cigarette smoking, and alcohol consumption are among the many things that differ between the United States and Japan. There is also a significant difference between these two nations in the incidence and mortality for several types of cancer. In an investigation of cancer statistics for the United States and Japan for the 30-year period from 1955 to 1985, investigators tabulated the rates for various types of cancer and correlated those rates with known risk factors. They also observed trends which appear to be associated with the westernization of the lifestyle of Japan. It is expected that these trends will continue. The rate of lung cancer is higher among American men, despite the fact that Japanese men smoke more cigarettes. However, cigarette smoking became more prevalent sooner in the US than in Japan, and lung cancer is thought to have a lag time of 20 to 25 years. Thus, Japanese men are likely to catch up to, and perhaps surpass, American men in developing lung cancer. Breast cancer is more common among American women than among Japanese women; this may be due to a number of different factors, including higher fat consumption in the US and a greater likelihood of breast feeding among Japanese women. However, the rate of breast cancer in Japan is increasing, perhaps due in part to a decrease in the birth rate. The incidence of breast cancer in the US, on the other hand, is essentially constant. Cancers of the esophagus and stomach are far more common among Japanese than among Americans, but the rates are falling in both countries. Japanese rates of liver cancer are about nine times higher than those in the US. This is largely due to the roughly 10-fold greater prevalence of hepatitis B virus infection in Japan. While the rate of colon cancer is greater in the US, Japanese colon cancer rates are rising at a accelerated pace. It is worth noting that the consumption of dietary fiber in Japan is only marginally higher than in the US, and can not account for the observed difference in colon cancer mortality. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

United States, Japan, Cancer, Life style, Lifestyles

---

Cancer of the urinary bladder in blacks and whites: a case-control study

Article Abstract:

Cancer of the urinary bladder is related to smoking. It is presumed that the bladders of cigarette smokers are exposed to tobacco carcinogens in the urine, but the identity of such carcinogens has not been confirmed. Other factors that may contribute to the development of this cancer, such as bacterial infections of the bladder, have not been ruled out. A curious fact is that bladder cancer is the only smoking-related cancer that has a higher frequency among whites than among blacks. To elucidate possible causes for this difference, 1,534 white patients and 129 black patients with bladder cancer were studied, along with 4,930 matched controls. The results confirmed the association of cigarette smoking and bladder cancer, but also identified an intriguing dose-related trend. The number of black patients was sufficiently small that it was difficult to stratify the patients according to cigarette consumption and still maintain large enough groups for statistical significance. However, there seemed to be a trend towards greater susceptibility to the effects of smoking on the bladder among the white patients. Both white males and females had a roughly three-fold increase in the risk of developing bladder cancer if they smoked more than 10 cigarettes per day. However, among black patients, the increased risk was two-fold, and was only apparent for smokers consuming more than 20 cigarettes per day. It is difficult to explain these results by racial differences in smoking habits. On the average, the black patients had smoked for longer periods of time and the whites chose brands of cigarettes that were, on average, two or three milligrams lower in tar per cigarette. The possibility remains that the tobacco-related carcinogenic substances in the bladder are metabolized differently in blacks than in whites. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Causes of, Physiological aspects, Cigarettes, Bladder cancer

Similar abstracts:

• Abstracts: Treatment of polymyalgia rheumatica and giant cell arteritis. II. Relation between steroid dose and steroid associated side effects
• Abstracts: Risk factors for acute non-A, non-B hepatitis in the United States and association with hepatitis C virus infection
• Abstracts: The geographic and ethnic diversity of AIDS incidence trends in homosexual/bisexual men in the United States. Impact of the 1987 revision of the case definition of acquired immune deficiency syndrome in the United States
• Abstracts: Risk factors for acute non-A, non-B hepatitis in the United States and association with hepatitis C virus infection. part 2
• Abstracts: Breast cancer and dietary and plasma concentrations of carotenoids and vitamin A. Questioning riboflavin recommendations on the basis of a survey in China

This website is not affiliated with document authors or copyright owners. This page is provided for informational purposes only. Unintentional errors are possible.