Tobacco-Related Cancers Go Far Beyond the Lungs

In the September 5, 2008 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), the CDC reviewed the MMWR surveillance summaries concerning cancers linked to tobacco use. According to the report between from 1999 to 2004 about 2.4 million cases of tobacco-related cancers were diagnosed in this country.

It should not be surprising that lung and bronchial cancer accounted for about half of the diagnosed illnesses. The CDC rates this "surveillance summary" as among the most comprehensive to date in assessing the incidence of tobacco-related cancers. In a news release Matthew McKenna, M.D., MPH, director of the CDC's Office on Smoking and Health said, "Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of disease and premature death in the United States and the most prominent cause of cancer." He adds "The tobacco-use epidemic causes a third of the cancers in America."

Besides lung and bronchial cancer, the report focused on oral cavity cancer; cancers of the larynx, pharynx, and esophagus. Other cancers which can have tobacco as a contributing factor are urinary bladder cancer, stomach, cervix, pancreas, kidneys, and acute myelogenous leukemia.

The study was based on analysis of data from the CDC's National Program of Cancer Registries, and the National Cancer Institutes Surveillance, Epidemiology and Results Program. It marks the first time the CDC has reported on all tobacco-related cancers in more than 90 percent of the U.S. population.

The study reflected patterns of tobacco use, with highest rates of lung, laryngeal, and cervical cancer being in the South which has the highest rate of smoking in the United States. The incidence of cancers related to tobacco use was highest among blacks, non-Hispanics with men suffering more cancers than women. The West had the lowest smoking rates, with Utah, California and Montana at the lowest; accordingly the cancer rates were lower in the West with the exception of stomach cancer.

In an agency news release, 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. We've long know 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 did note that tobacco use is a major cause for all the cancers included in the report, but not all cases of cancer studied could be linked directly to tobacco use. Some of the cancers have a number of risk factors that can cause disease independently with tobacco use as a contributing factor.

The CDC said that tobacco use kills 438,000 people prematurely every year, including 38,000 people who do not use tobacco themselves, but breathe second hand smoke.