| Abstract: | The relationship between type of cigarettes smoked and the risk of cancer of upper digestive and respiratory sites was investigated in a case-control study conducted in Northern Italy on 291 males with cancer of the oral cavity or pharynx, 288 with cancer of the esophagus, 162 with cancer of the larynx, and 1,272 control subjects in hospital for acute conditions unrelated to tobacco or alcohol consumption. Using a distinction based on tar-yield or the brand smoked for the longest time (<22 mg, low to medium tar;  22 mg, high tar), the multivariate relative risks among ever-smokers were 8.5 for low/medium and 16.4 for high tar cigarettes for oral and pharyngeal neoplasms, 3.3 and 7.8 for esophageal, and 4.8 and 7.1 for laryngeal cancers. The differences according to type of cigarettes were similar in proportional terms, and hence larger in absolute terms, when analysis was restricted to current smokers only. Thus, these data provide further quantitative evidence on the importance of type of cigarette smoked on the risk of upper-digestive and respiratory tract cancers and have important public health implications.Drs La Vecchia, D'Avanzo and Negri are at the Istituto di Richerche Farmacologiche  Mario Negri , Via Eritrea 62, 20157 Milano, Italy. Dr La Vecchia is also at the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Lausanne, 1005 Lausanne, Switzerland. Drs Bidoli, Barra, Talamini and Franceschi are in the Aviano Cancer Center, 33081 Aviano, Prodenone, Italy. Reprint requests should be addressed to Dr La Vecchia at the Istituto di Ricerche Farnacologiche. This work was conducted within the framework of the National Research Council (CNR), Applied Projects Oncology (Contract No. 87.01544.44) and Risk Factors for Disease, with contributions from the Italian Association for Cancer Research and the Italian League against Tumours, Milan. |
