Association Between Smoking and Risk of Bladder Cancer Among Men and Women
- Study type
- Observational study
- Study name
- NIH-AARP
- Design
- Prospective cohort study (NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study) with a systematic review of earlier prospective cohort studies
- Sample size
- 281,394 men and 186,134 women
- Source
- JAMA · 2011
In plain words
In this large study, more than four hundred thousand men and women were followed for several years to look at the link between smoking and bladder cancer. The risk of bladder cancer was about four times higher in current smokers, and more than twice as high in former smokers, compared with people who had never smoked. About half of all bladder cancers, in both men and women, were attributed to smoking. The results show that quitting smoking, and never starting, matter for preventing bladder cancer.
Key results
Treatment arms and regimens
Reference group; incidence 39.8 per 100,000 person-years. This is an observational study with no drug intervention.
Incidence 119.8 per 100,000 person-years. This is an observational study with no drug intervention.
Incidence 177.3 per 100,000 person-years. This is an observational study with no drug intervention.
Source of the regimen details: Abstract of the paper
Doses are given for the information of specialists, as in this study’s protocol, and are not a prescription. Every drug must be prescribed by the treating physician for the individual patient.
Study population
Men (281,394) and women (186,134) in the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study cohort who completed a lifestyle questionnaire and were followed from 25 October 1995 to 31 December 2006. Earlier prospective cohort studies of smoking and bladder cancer incidence were also identified through a systematic review.
Endpoints
Main outcome measures: hazard ratio (HR), population attributable risk (PAR) and number needed to harm (NNH).
Safety and side effects
This is an observational study with no therapeutic intervention, so treatment adverse events were not reported.
Clinical significance and place in guidelines
This study shows that in a more recent cohort the relative risk of bladder cancer associated with smoking is higher than estimates from older cohorts, and that the contribution of smoking to this cancer in women is comparable to that in men. These findings underline the importance of smoking prevention and cessation. The abstract does not mention a direct change to clinical guidelines, and the status of recommendations in current guidelines should be checked separately.
Limitations
Based on the abstract, this is an observational study and smoking data came from a lifestyle questionnaire. Other limitations should be checked in the full text of the paper.
This summary was prepared by the editorial team from the published paper; the original paper is the final reference. Read the original abstract on PubMed.