SMOKING-HABITS AND RISK OF CANCERS OTHER THAN LUNG-CANCER - 28 YEARS FOLLOW-UP OF 26,000 NORWEGIAN MEN AND WOMEN

The impact of tobacco smoking on lung cancer risk has been investigate d 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 smoki ng of suspected smoking-associated cancers other than lung cancer, Dat a were obtained from a survey of a random sample of the Norwegian popu lation. A self-administered mailed questionnaire, which included quest ions about smoking habits, was completed by 26,000 men and women in 19 65 (response rate: 76 percent), The cohort was followed from 1966 thro ugh 1993, including registration of all incident cancer cases. A dose- response relationship of cigarette smoking to the risk of urinary blad der cancer and cancers of the upper digestive and respiratory tract wa s observed. For the latter forms of cancer, a dose-response relationsh ip of pipe smoking also was observed. In cancer of the pancreas, a str onger association between cigarette smoking and cancer risk was observ ed when the analysis was confined to histologically confirmed cases on ly Current cigarette smokers at baseline had a significantly higher ri sk of cervical cancer than those who never smoked cigarettes. In cance rs of the stomach, colon, rectum, breast, corpus uteri, ovary, and pro state, and in leukemia, no association between smoking and cancer risk was observed.