Advances in Tobacco Carcinogenesis

Abstract

In their first reports on smoking and disease both the Royal College Of Physicians Of London (1962) and the US Surgeon General Of The Public Health Service (1964) concluded that cigarette smoking is causally related to lung cancer in humans and is associated with cancer of the oral cavity, larynx and urinary bladder. These conclusions were based on epidemiological data and were supported by laboratory studies. Today, 25 years later and after extensive research, epidemiological reports from more than 20 countries have led the US Surgeon General (1986 a) and the International Agency For Research On Cancer (1986) to the conclusion that smoking of cigarettes is causally related to cancer of the respiratory tract, the upper digestive tract, pancreas, renal pelvis and bladder and that cigarette smokers also face an increased risk for cancer of the cervix. Cigar and pipe smoking are also causally related to cancer of the respiratory tract, oral cavity and esophagus, although, in the case of lung cancer, not to the same extent as cigarette smoking (US Surgeon General 1986 a; IARC 1986). In addition to active smoking, involuntary smoking, i. e., the exposure to environmental tobacco smoke, has been incriminated as a risk factor for cancer of the lung in nonsmokers (IARC 1986; US National Research Council 1986; US Surgeon General 1986 a). Furthermore, chewing of tobacco and especially the oral use of snuff were found to be associated with cancer of the oral cavity (IARC 1985 a; US Surgeon General 1986 b) and possibly with cancer of the nasal cavity, kidney and bladder (Brinton et al. 1984; US Surgeon General 1986 a; Kabat et al. 1986; Goodman et al. 1986).KeywordsTobacco SmokeSurgeon GeneralEnvironmental Tobacco SmokeSmokeless TobaccoSyrian Golden HamsterThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.