Smoking increases the risk of developing bladder cancer fourfold
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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It has long been known that smoking leads to a wide variety of cancers. The new data show that this habit causes about half of the cases of bladder cancer in both men and women. And this is more than previously thought.
Annually, bladder cancer is diagnosed in more than 350,000 people worldwide.
In 2009, the results of a study conducted on smokers in the state of New Hampshire were published. They attracted the attention of Neil Friedman, a scientist from the National Cancer Institute of the United States. Together with colleagues, he noted an unusually large number of diseases of bladder cancer among study participants.
Friedman's team carried out an additional analysis, examining the data collected from half a million people participating in the study of the effect of the diet on health conducted by the National Institute of Health. Participants in this long-term study at the time of its inception in 1995 were between 50 and 71 years old.
When Friedman compared the baseline data to the results obtained in 2006, he found that during this time, bladder cancer was diagnosed in 4,500 people.
"Our study showed that current smokers have four times more chances of developing bladder cancer than those who do not smoke," he says. "This is more than in the studies conducted earlier - in the sixties and eighties."
Then the smokers fell ill with cancer only three times more often than those who abstain from tobacco.
"We found another interesting thing - both in men and women, smoking is associated with about half of all cases of bladder cancer," adds Friedman. - Previous studies were conducted at a time when women smoked less than men. And then smoking could cause about half the cases of cancer in men, but only 20-30 percent of cases - in women. "
Friedman notes that the composition of cigarettes in half a century has changed. Although the tar and nicotine content decreased, the content of a number of other carcinogens, including beta-naphthalamine, seems to have increased, which may be related to the development of bladder cancer. In addition, the new study concluded that former smokers are also at increased risk of contracting this dangerous disease. The article with the results of the study is published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
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