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The effect of occasional smoking on smoking-related cancers

In the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)

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Abstract

Objective

Most studies on tobacco smoking have focused on daily-smokers. Occasional smokers, who have never smoked daily, have often been included in the reference group of never-smokers. We have investigated the association between occasional smoking and cancer of the bladder, kidney, pancreas, upper aero-digestive tract and lung.

Methods

The study population consisted of 158,488 persons, who provided information on occasional smoking, within the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC), 780 of whom developed a smoking-related cancer. We used Cox proportional hazard model, stratified by gender and country to estimate incidence rate ratios (IRR) for smoking-related cancers.

Results

The results suggest that occasional smokers have a higher risk of bladder cancer (IRR: 1.92, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.93–3.98) and of the major smoking-related cancers combined (IRR: 1.24, 95% CI 0.80–1.94) than true never-smokers. Including occasional smokers in the reference group resulted in a lower risk estimate for former and current smokers.

Conclusions

Occasional smoking should be discouraged.

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Abbreviations

IRR:

Incidence rate ratio

CI:

Confidence intervals

EPIC:

European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition

IARC:

International Agency for Research on Cancer

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Acknowledgements

We thank all the participants in EPIC.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Cancer Epidemiology, Danish Cancer Society, Strandboulevarden 49, 2100 , Copenhagen Ø, Denmark

    Bine Kjøller Bjerregaard, Ole Raaschou-Nielsen, Mette Sørensen, Kirsten Frederiksen & Anne Tjønneland

  2. Division of Clinical Epidemiology, German Cancer Research Centre, Heidelberg, Germany

    Sabine Rohrmann & Jakob Linseisen

  3. Department of Epidemiology, German Institute of Human Nutrition, Potsdam-Rehbrücke, Nuthetal, Germany

    Manuela M. Bergman & Heiner Boeing

  4. Nutritional Epidemiology Unit, National Cancer Institute, Milan, Italy

    Sabina Sieri

  5. Molecular and Nutritional Epidemiology Unit, CSPO-Scientific Institute of Tuscany, Florence, Italy

    Domenico Palli

  6. Cancer Registry, Azienda Ospedaliera “Civile M.P. Arezzo”, Ragusa, Italy

    Rosario Tumino

  7. Servizio di Epidemiologia dei Tumori, Universitá di Torino, Torino, Italy

    Carlotta Sacerdote

  8. National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Centre for Nutrition and Health, Bilthoven, Netherlands

    H. Bas Bueno-de-Mesquita & Frederike L. Büchner

  9. University of Tromsø, Tromsø, Norway

    Inger Torhild Gram, Tonje Braaten & Eiliv Lund

  10. Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, Nutritional research, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden

    Göran Hallmans & Åsa Ågren

  11. International Agency for Research on Cancer, Lyon, France

    Elio Riboli

Authors
  1. Bine Kjøller Bjerregaard
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  2. Ole Raaschou-Nielsen
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  3. Mette Sørensen
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  4. Kirsten Frederiksen
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  5. Anne Tjønneland
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  6. Sabine Rohrmann
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  7. Jakob Linseisen
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  8. Manuela M. Bergman
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  9. Heiner Boeing
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  10. Sabina Sieri
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  11. Domenico Palli
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  12. Rosario Tumino
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  13. Carlotta Sacerdote
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  14. H. Bas Bueno-de-Mesquita
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  15. Frederike L. Büchner
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  16. Inger Torhild Gram
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  17. Tonje Braaten
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  18. Eiliv Lund
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  19. Göran Hallmans
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  20. Åsa Ågren
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  21. Elio Riboli
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ole Raaschou-Nielsen.

Additional information

The work described in the paper was carried out with the financial support of the “Europe Against Cancer” Programme of the European Commission (SANCO); Deutsche Krebshilfe; German Cancer Research Center; German Federal Ministry of Education and Research; Danish Cancer Society; Italian Association for Research on Cancer; Italian National Research Council; Dutch Ministry of Public Health, Welfare and Sports; National Cancer Registry and the Regional Cancer Registries Amsterdam, East and Maastricht of the Netherlands; Norwegian Cancer Society; Research Council of Norway; World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF); Swedish Cancer Society; Swedish Scientific Council; Regional Government of Skåne, Sweden.

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Bjerregaard, B.K., Raaschou-Nielsen, O., Sørensen, M. et al. The effect of occasional smoking on smoking-related cancers. Cancer Causes Control 17, 1305–1309 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-006-0068-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-006-0068-9

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