TRANSITIONAL-CELL CANCER OF THE URINARY-TRACT AND RENAL-CELL CANCER IN RELATION TO ACETAMINOPHEN USE (UNITED-STATES)

Experimental and epidemiologic evidence have suggested that phenacetin use increases the risk of transitional cell cancers of the urinary tr act, The drug is no longer marketed but a commonly used metabolite, ac etaminophen, has been linked recently to an increased risk of renal ca ncer, We assessed the relation of acetaminophen use to the risk of tra nsitional cell cancer of the urinary tract and of renal cell cancer wi th data from a hospital-based study of cancers and medication use cond ucted from 1976-96 in the eastern United States, We compared 498 cases of transitional cell cancer and 383 cases of renal cell cancer with 8 ,149 noncancer controls and 6,499 cancer controls and controlled confo unding factors with logistic regression, For transitional cell cancer, the relative risk (RR) estimate for regular acetaminophen use that ha d begun at least a year before admission was 1.1 (95 percent confidenc e interval [CI] = 0.6-1.9) based on noncancer controls, and 0.9 (CI = 0.5-1.6) based on cancer controls. RR estimates for use that lasted at least five years, and for nonregular use, were also close to 1.0. For renal cell cancer, the corresponding estimates were again close to 1. 0, Our results suggest that acetaminophen, as used in present study po pulation, does not influence the risk of transitional cell cancer of t he urinary tract or of renal cell cancer.