Smoking and Bladder Cancer: Does Gender Matter?

The first report of a potential cause-and-effect relationship between cigarette smoking and bladder cancer appeared more than 50 years ago. Since then, researchers have reported reductions in cigarette tar and nicotine concentrations but increases in known bladder cancer carcinogens such as β-napthylamine. Recent studies in both lung and bladder cancer have provided evidence that these changes in cigarette composition might explain why the incidence of bladder cancer has remained steady during the past 3 decades, despite a substantial decline in smoking prevalence.

Now, investigators have assessed incidence and risks for bladder cancer among more than 281,000 men and 186,000 women who completed questionnaires for the National Institutes of H…