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A Case-Control Study of Smoking and Bladder Cancer Risk: Emergent Patterns Over Time  

Conclusions: Smoking-related risks of bladder cancer appear to have increased in New Hampshire since the mid-1990s. Based on our modeling of pack-years and intensity, smoking fewer cigarettes over a long time appears more harmful than smoking more cigarettes over a shorter time, for equal total pack-years of cigarettes smoked.

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EDITORIAL: Cigarette Smoking and Bladder Cancer: A New Twist in an Old Saga?  

The findings of Baris et al. (7) are provocative and are accompanied by a tenable hypothesis. Recalling the steady accumulation of evidence and the cautious inferences that eventually led to the determination that smoking causes bladder cancer, these intriguing findings offer a testable hypothesis that warrants thorough investigation. An important element of this research will be to more precisely, pinpoint the specific role of cigarette additives will be an important element of this research. This study highlights the need for continued vigilance in monitoring the impact of changing cigarette content and design on disease risk, and demonstrates that the public health implications of the changing cigarette content and design are potentially severe.

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Smoking cessation program offers childhood cancer survivors help to quit the habit 

As health advocates gear up for this year's Great American Smokeout, childhood cancer survivors who need help with smoking cessation can receive free counseling and nicotine replacement therapy from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

As smokers nationwide struggle to quit the habit, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is offering assistance to those childhood cancer survivors who need help with smoking cessation.

Despite the known health risks of tobacco use, about 18 percent of adults who survived childhood cancer are smokers--an average almost equal to that of the general population. Childhood cancer survivors are more likely to develop second cancers and other conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and stroke. Smoking adds to their health risks.

"The increase in survival rates for childhood cancer has been one of the most significant successes in cancer during the past three decades," said Robert Klesges, Ph.D., of the St. Jude Epidemiology and Cancer Control department. "However, few researchers have addressed the issue of smoking in cancer survivors. Because the population of childhood cancer survivors is growing each year, St. Jude sought an effective way to help these individuals."

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A Case-Control Study of Smoking and Bladder Cancer Risk: Emergent Patterns Over Time  

Conclusions: Smoking-related risks of bladder cancer appear to have increased in New Hampshire since the mid-1990s. Based on our modeling of pack-years and intensity, smoking fewer cigarettes over a long time appears more harmful than smoking more cigarettes over a shorter time, for equal total pack-years of cigarettes smoked. . . .

Contribution

Overall, current smokers, compared with never-smokers, had more than a five fold higher risk of bladder cancer. Among New Hampshire residents, there was a statistically significant progressive increase over each time period in bladder cancer risk among both former and current smokers compared with never-smokers.

Implications

The smoking-related risks of bladder cancer appear to have increased over time, at least among New Hampshire residents.

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• Bladder Cancer Risks Increase Over Time For Smokers  

Risk of bladder cancer for smokers has increased since the mid-1990s, with a risk progressively increasing to a level five times higher among current smokers in New Hampshire than that among nonsmokers in 2001-2004, according to a new study published online November 16 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Furthermore, researchers found that among individuals who smoked the same total number of cigarettes over their lifetime, smoking fewer cigarettes per day for more years may be more harmful than smoking more cigarettes per day for fewer years.

It is well known that cigarette smoking causes bladder cancer, but the influence of various parameters of smoking history, including trends in risk over time, is unclear.

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• EDITORIAL: Cigarette Smoking and Bladder Cancer: A New Twist in an Old Saga?  

So far, the changing carcinogenic properties of cigarettes have been studied most extensively for lung cancer, and it is known that this risk has increased over time (13). Furthermore, the relative risks of mortality from "other smoking-related cancers" increased for both men (RR = 2.7 to 3.5) and women (RR = 1.8 to 2.6) when a cohort established in 1959, with follow-up through 1965, and another cohort established in 1982, with follow-up through 1988, were compared (14). In cohort studies carried out in the United States, that reported the RR for current smokers relative to nonsmokers in relation to bladder cancer incidence. No increase in the association was observed in successive and overlapping cohorts in Washington County, Maryland (RR = 2.7 for bladder cancer incidence in current smokers relative to nonsmokers in the first cohort, followed from 1963 to 1988; RR = 2.6 in the second cohort, followed from 1975 to 1994) (15). A similar relative risk (RR = 2.9) was reported in a Hawaiian cohort followed from 1966 to 1988 (16). In a few recent cohort studies, reported RRs of bladder cancer incidence among current smokers relative to nonsmokers were notably higher: 5.7 in Seventh Day Adventists followed from 1976 to 1982 (17) and 5.5 in the Iowa Women's Health Study cohort followed from 1986 to 1998 (18). This evidence is equivocal but certainly does not rule out that the association has grown stronger over time.

The findings of Baris et al. (7) are provocative and are accompanied by a tenable hypothesis. Recalling the steady accumulation of evidence and the cautious inferences that eventually led to the determination that smoking causes bladder cancer, these intriguing findings offer a testable hypothesis that warrants thorough investigation. An important element of this research will be to more precisely, pinpoint the specific role of cigarette additives will be an important element of this research. This study highlights the need for continued vigilance in monitoring the impact of changing cigarette content and design on disease risk, and demonstrates that the public health implications of the changing cigarette content and design are potentially severe.

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Perata, health groups launch tobacco tax initiative  

Former state Senate President Pro Tem and 2010 Oakland mayoral candidate Don Perata joined cancer research and health advocates Monday to launch a ballot measure that would hike cigarette taxes by a dollar a pack.

"This is the right measure for the right time," Corey Goodman, a UC San Francisco professor and former biotech entrepreneur, said at a news conference in the Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute, adding the half-billion dollars per year this measure could raise would help move scientific breakthroughs "from the bench to the bedside" to save lives.

Perata said he conceived of the measure while still in the state Senate, well before being treated for prostate cancer earlier this year. He called it "probably the most exhilarating and hopefully the most rewarding thing I will have done in my years in politics."

Money raised would go into a trust fund, with 60 cents of every dollar to fund research on causes, prevention and treatment of cancer and other smoking-related illnesses;

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AUDIO: Feature News Story | Health Advocates Push Ballot Measure To Raise Cigarette Tax For Cancer Research 

Anti-smoking groups are working to get a measure on next year's ballot that would raise the state tax on cigarettes.

The money would help pay for cancer research in California.

Capital Public Radio's Steve Shadley reports...

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Smoking-Related Bladder Cancer on the Rise 

Action Points

* Explain to interested patients that the risk of bladder cancer from smoking appears to be on the rise due to past reformulations of cigarettes.

* Note that low-nicotine cigarettes may lead smokers to inhale more deeply and frequently, leading to greater exposure to carcinogens.

Smokers living in New Hampshire today appear to have nearly four times the risk of bladder cancer of their counterparts in the mid-1990s -- possibly a result of changes to the design and composition of cigarettes in the 1960s and '70s, a new study found.

The risk of bladder cancer increased significantly over three consecutive periods among former smokers, according to an online report published Nov. 16 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

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• Bladder cancer risks increase over time for smokers 

Risk of bladder cancer for smokers has increased since the mid-1990s, with a risk progressively increasing to a level five times higher among current smokers in New Hampshire than that among nonsmokers in 2001-2004, according to a new study published online November 16 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Furthermore, researchers found that among individuals who smoked the same total number of cigarettes over their lifetime, smoking fewer cigarettes per day for more years may be more harmful than smoking more cigarettes per day for fewer years.

It is well known that cigarette smoking causes bladder cancer, but the influence of various parameters of smoking history, including trends in risk over time, is unclear.

Dalsu Baris, M.D., Ph.D., of the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, in Bethesda, Md., and her colleagues from NCI, Dartmouth Medical School, and the departments of health for the states of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, examined bladder cancer risk in relation to smoking practices based on data from a large, population-based case-control study conducted in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont from 2001 to 2004.

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• Calif. group pushes for $1 tobacco tax increase for cancer research 

Smokers in California will have to dig much deeper into their pockets to buy a pack of cigarettes next year if a proposed ballot measure passes.

The Californians for a Cure plan is aimed at raising millions of dollars for cancer research, smoking prevention programs and to help bankroll anti-tobacco smuggling efforts. The measure is backed by, among others, cancer research and health advocates.

Their plan calls for a buck increase in the state's excise tax on tobacco, to $1.87 per pack. The money raised would flow into a trust fund. Sixty-cents of the dollar raised from a pack of smokes would to go to fund research on cancer and other smoking-related illnesses.

Under the plan, 20 cents would go to fund smoking cessation and tobacco use prevention programs, 15 cents would go to help fund research facilities, while three pennies would go to fund tobacco smuggling enforcement.

The plan calls for about two percent of the revenue to go for administrative costs.

How the money would be spent would be overseen by a nine-member oversight committee.

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• Report: Cancer Risk High as Smoking Surges in Africa 

Medical experts say tobacco-related illnesses are becoming a serious health issue in Africa as a new report warns tobacco use may double in some parts of the continent during the next 12 years. The report, from the Global Smokefree Partnership, warns that 90 percent of people in Africa have no protection against second-hand smoke.

Almost 15 percent of the world's population is in Africa, but right now the continent only accounts for four percent of world smokers.

The Global Smokefree Partnership, an initiative aimed at developing smoke-free policies around the world, says the continent needs to introduce strong smoke-free laws and high taxes on cigarettes in order to keep the number of smokers down and to limit the affects of second-hand smoke.

Antonella Cardone, project manager of the Partnership, says in some parts of Africa governments are taking important steps towards protecting their populations from the affects of tobacco.

"There are several countries now in Africa, which have developed smoke free policies," said Antonella Cardone. "We can definitely mention Niger and Kenya, then Mauritius - those are just a few."

But Cardone says in many African countries citizens still have no protection. Ghana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Uganda are highlighted in the report as countries that are failing to implement smoke-free laws.

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• Cancer hits Tennesseans hard  

Tennesseans die of cancer at the fifth-worst rate in the nation.

What kills them most frequently is cigarettes, but a powerful mix of misinformation and denial also drives up the death count.

A Tennessean examination that included dozens of interviews with doctors, cancer experts and patients across the state found health professionals frequently encounter people who have ignored symptoms for months or even years before going to a doctor. A lack of urgency or confusion about routine cancer screenings, coupled with misconceptions about treatment and even a fatalistic acceptance of the disease, leads to cancers being diagnosed too late to be treated successfully.

"There's a personal value system, a thought process that says, 'It can't be me,' and an incredibly complicated health system," said Mary Jane Dewey, director of the state Health Department's sole free cancer screening program. "Even people with insurance can't understand their policies."

Lung, breast, prostate and colorectal cancers are the most commonly diagnosed in the state. In the 2001-05 reporting period, more Tennesseans died from lung cancer — 20,629 victims — than from the other three combined. . . .

But money can be an issue. The Tennessee legislature put $10 million into smoking prevention and cessation programs for the first time for the 2007-08 fiscal year, but then halved that the following year. This year, the state's tobacco control program is running on a $1.5 million budget, all but $300,000 of that from a Centers for Disease Control grant.

The money pays for the state's 1-800-QUIT-NOW line, which matches smokers with counselors to help them quit, and literature.

But anti-smoking advocates look most longingly at the state's $4.8 billion settlement with tobacco companies, which it began receiving in annual payments in 1999. The legislature voted to put the money into the general fund; none into anti-smoking programs. Tennessee has collected $1.9 billion to date.

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Puff ban hole in cancer fight 

The ban on public smoking is likely to have only a limited impact in the country on tobacco-related cancers which are primarily driven by tobacco chewing, a senior oncologist has said.

Although smoking can cause cancers of the lung, larynx and oesophagus, cancer registry figures suggest oral cancer, which is associated with tobacco chewing, accounts for the majority of tobacco-related cancers in the country, said Pankaj Chaturvedi, a surgeon at Mumbai's Tata Memorial Hospital.

"About 60 to 70 per cent of India's estimated 250-million tobacco users chew tobacco," Chaturvedi said at a conference organised by the health ministry to devise strategies to address the problem of smokeless tobacco. "The ban on smoking deals with only about one-third of tobacco users."

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Mouth Cancer - A Deadly Disease - On the Increase 

Mouth cancer (also called oral cancer) is a malignant growth which can occur in any part of the mouth including the lips and tongue. In the UK, the numbers of new cases have risen by over 41 per cent over the last ten years(1). About 5,325 people get cancer of the mouth each year and the disease kills one person every five hours. Treated in its early stages, mouth cancer is curable but if not detected early, it kills around one in two sufferers.

Anyone can be affected by mouth cancer, whether they have their own teeth or not. Smoking, or chewing tobacco (or betel quid/paan/gutkha), greatly increases your chances of getting mouth cancer. Heavy drinking is also a risk. If you do both, your chances of getting mouth cancer are much greater. This cancer is more common in men than women and more likely to occur in people age 40 years and older. Experts today, however, are concerned about rising numbers of this cancer in younger age groups. The HPV virus from sexual contact is believed to account for this. . . .

In addition to this lifestyle counselling and regular screening, dental practices can now offer patients an extended test using a new mouth cancer screening system which can identify abnormal areas of the mouth, identifying areas of potential risk even before they become cancer. The latest system is called ViziLite Plus which is used extensively in the USA as an aid to early detection and has been widely introduced into the UK.

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