Researchers from the National Cancer Institute have reported that smoking increases the risk of developing pancreatic cancer and that smoking cessation lowers this risk to baseline in 15 years. The details of this study appeared in the August 15, 2009 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology.[1]
Smoking substantially increases the risk of death from cancer, cardiovascular disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. In the case of lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer death among both men and women in the United States, smoking is thought to be responsible for 80-90% of all deaths. Smoking also contributes to cancers of the head and neck, esophagus, rectum, breast, ovary, stomach, and bladder as well as follicular lymphoma. According to an analysis by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), cigarette smoking and exposure to tobacco smoke cause at least 443,000 premature deaths each year in the United States alone. However, there have been no comprehensive reports of the effects of smoking on the incidence of pancreatic cancer.
These researchers used data from the international Pancreatic Cancer Cohort Consortium to determine the effects of smoking on the incidence of pancreatic cancer. This was a case-control study involving 1,481 cases of pancreatic cancer and 1,539 controls. Compared with never smokers, current smokers had a 77% increased risk of developing pancreatic cancer. The risk of developing pancreatic cancer increased with intensity of smoking, duration of smoking, and total cumulative smoking dose. However, they reported that the risk of pancreatic cancer 15 years after smoking cessation was similar to that of non-smokers. They also suggested that the risk was greater for total exposure delivered at low intensity for longer duration than for higher intensity smoking for a shorter period of time. The decline in risk suggested that “smoking has a late stage effect on pancreatic carcinogenesis.”
Comments: Pancreatic cancer can be added to the list of cancers that are increased in smokers. This study also documents the magnitude of benefit from smoking cessation.
Reference:
[1] Lymch SM, Vrieling A, Lubin JH, et al. Cigarette smoking and pancreatic cancer: A pooled analysis from the Pancreatic Cancer Cohort Consortium. American Journal of Epidemiology. 2009;170:403-413.
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