Abstract
A case-control study of lung cancer was conducted in northwestern Germany in 1985–86. The study included 194 lung cancer cases and the same number of hospital controls and population controls who were matched to the cases by sex and age. Personal interviews were conducted by trained interviewers. We report here the effect of different smoking patterns—such as nonsmoking intervals, and time since quitting smoking—on lung cancer risk. Both quitting smoking and having a nonsmoking interval are seen to reduce lung cancer risk significantly. For a nonsmoking interval of three years or more, relative risk (RR)=0.21, 95 percent confidence interval (CI)=0.08–0.52; for quitting smoking for 10 years or more, RR=0.23, CI=0.11–0.48). A dose-response relationship was estimated for cigarette dose, length of nonsmoking interval, and time since stopped smoking.
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Additional information
Dr Becher is with the German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany. Dr Jöckel is with the Bremen Institute for Prevention Research and Social Medicine, Bremen, Germany. Drs Timm and Drescher are with the University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany. Dr Wichmann is with the University of Wuppertal, Wuppertal, Germany. Address correspondence to Dr Becher, German Cancer Research Center, Institute of Epidemiology and Biometry, Im Neuenheimer Feld 280, D-6900 Heidelberg, Germany. The study was supported by the Umweltbundesamt, Berlin, Germany.
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Becher, H., Jöckel, KH., Timm, J. et al. Smoking cessation and nonsmoking intervals: effect of different smoking patterns on lung cancer risk. Cancer Causes Control 2, 381–387 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00054298
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00054298