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Cigarette smoking and primary liver cancer: a population-based case-control study in US men.

Zhu K, Moriarty C, Caplan LS, Levine RS

US Military Cancer Institute, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, 6900 Georgia Avenue, NW, Building 1, Suite A-109, Washington, DC 20307-5001, USA. kangmin.zhu@na.amedd.army.mil

OBJECTIVE: Using the case-control data from the Selected Cancers Study, the authors assessed whether cigarette smoking increases the risk of primary liver cancer in the US. METHODS: Cases were men who were pathologically diagnosed with primary liver cancer during 1984-1988, were 31-59 years old, and lived in the areas covered by eight US cancer registries (n=168). Controls were men without a history of primary liver cancer who were selected by random-digit telephone dialing (n=1910). RESULTS: Relative to non-smokers, the risks of liver cancer were 1.85 (95% confidence interval (CI), 1.05-3.25) and 1.49 (95% CI, 0.83-2.68) for former and current smokers, respectively. The adjusted odds ratio (OR) estimates were 0.96, 1.43, 1.80, and 1.87 for smoking for less than 15, 15-24, 25-34 and 35 or more years, respectively (p for trend=0.039). The OR estimates were 1.41 (95% CI, 0.74-2.68), 1.67 (95% CI, 0.93-2.98), and 1.83 (95% CI, 0.89-3.76) for less than 1, 1-2, and 2 or more packs smoked per day (p for trend=0.068). CONCLUSIONS: Cigarette smoking may be a factor that contributes somewhat to the occurrence of primary liver cancer among men in the United States, a country with low risk of liver cancer.

Published 5 March 2007 in Cancer Causes Control, 18(3): 315-21.
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