CANCER INCIDENCE IN FEMALE SMOKERS - A 26-YEAR FOLLOW-UP

A random sample of 26,000 Swedish women who were asked about their smo king habits in the early 1960s have now been followed for 26 years wit h respect to cancer incidence. Most findings regarding tobacco smoking and cancer from studies of men were confirmed also among the women. E levated relative risk for current smokers compared with women who neve r smoked regularly were seen for cancers of the lung, upper aerodigest ive sites, pancreas, bladder, cervix and all cancers combined, as well as a notably high relative risk for cancers of organs of the urinary tract other than kidney and bladder. Relative risk increased with dose , measured as grams of tobacco smoked per day, for cancers of the uppe r aerodigestive sites, lung, cervix, bladder, organs of the urinary tr act other than kidney and bladder and all cancers combined. For cancer s of the lung, bladder and cervix, there was an inverse relationship w ith age when starting to smoke tobacco. The reported inverse relations hip between smoking and endometrial cancer could not be corroborated, nor was there any significant relationship between smoking and colorec tal or breast cancer. (C) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.