Tobacco Consumption Linked To 2 Million Cancer Cases

The ‘silent killer’ tobacco is in news once again. In a report released by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday, it has been stated that lung and bronchial cancers are the major reason for almost half of the approximately 2.4 million tobacco-related cancers diagnosed in the US between 1999 and 2004.

The latest data is based on the CDC’s National Program of Cancerdefine Registries and National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology and Results Program.

This study is first of its kind where the CDC has reported on all tobacco-related cancers for more than 90 per cent of the US population.

The major findings of the study say that the highest number of tobacco-related cancers was among blacks and non-Hispanics and among men.

Also, South of USA has the highest rate of lung, laryngeal and cervical cancer because of the number of people who smoke there.

Other key points of CDC’s report’s are:

1.Kentucky has the highest lung cancer rates for men and women, the third highest rate of laryngeal cancers among men and the highest rate of laryngeal cancer among women. Also, the state has the highest rate of current smoking, i.e. 28.6 lakhs.

2.Smoking rates are the lowest in West, thereby bringing down the cancer rate too. The only exception here is prevalence of stomach cancer.

3.The high incidence of lung and laryngeal cancers in the South do not vary much. And the smoking patterns do reveal the connection between these cancers and use of tobacco.

4.South had the highest rate of lung and bronchial cancer in 2004, while the West had the lowest.
As far as the women are concerned, rates of lung and bronchial cancer were similar in the South, Midwest and Northeast with the lowest being in the West.

5.More than one million cancer cases diagnosed between 1999 and 2004 pertained to other cancers associated with tobacco use. These include cancers of the pancreasdefine, urinary bladderdefine, kidney, stomach, cervix and acute myelogenous leukaemia.

Lead author Sherri Stewart, of the CDC’s Division of Cancer Prevention and Control, said, “The data in this report provides additional, strong evidence of the serious harm related to tobacco.”

She further added, “We’ve long known tobacco was associated with lung and laryngeal cancer, but this study gives us even greater clarity. The rates for these two cancers were highest in areas with the highest prevalence of tobacco use.”

The researchers noted that though tobacco is one of the major reasons for all the cancers included in the report, not all cancer cases can be directly linked to tobacco use. Other risk factors could be genetics or infections combined with or without tobacco use.