Tobacco use and the risk of lung cancer in Macedonia.

INTRODUCTION

Lung cancer (LC) is one of the most common diseases in the world. Smoking is the most important "lifestyle" risk-factor attributed to the development of LC.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of the study was to determine the existence of a causal association between cigarette smoking and the development and distribution of LC.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The case-control study was conducted in 91 patients with LC (investigated group-IG) and the same number of persons without malignant disease (control group-CG). Both groups were interviewed between 14 July 2005 and 14 July 2006. Risk analyses were done using unconditional logistic regression, which provided results in the form of crude odds ratio. The odds ratios and their 95% confidence intervals (CI) were computed.

RESULTS

Cigarette smoking is wide spread among men with LC (68%), while in CG this percent is 40.3%. In IG, among females, current smokers and nonsmokers are represented equally. More than a half of the LC patients smoke between 21-40 c/d (56.8%). Smokers and ex-smokers have 4.05 (95% CI 1.78 < OR < 9.19) times significantly higher risk to become ill compared to the non-smokers. The risk for becoming ill is 9.33 (95% CI 3.56 < OR < 24.48) times higher in smokers who smoke >20 c/d (p<0.01) compared to nonsmokers. The risk for developing LC is 4.55 (95 % CI 1.86 < OR < 11.12) times higher in persons smoking >15 years >20 c/g, compared to those who smoke <15 years <20 c/d.

CONCLUSION

Our study supports the statement that cigarette smoking is by far the most important risk factor for LC. Concerted control of smoking appears to be an important priority in LC prevention, including efforts to prevent adolescents from starting to smoke at an early age (Tab. 2, Fig. 2, Ref. 22). Full Text (Free, PDF) www.bmj.sk.