Cigarette smoking and bladder cancer in females.

In a hospital-based case-control study, 55 women with bladder cancer and 202 female surgical controls were compared for life-long smoking habits. The relative risk associated with cigarette smoking was 2.1; the proportion of bladder cancers attributable to such habit was estimated to be 22%. In comparison with a parallel study in men, it seems that age at diagnosis and age at start of smoking play a different role in the two sexes.