Smoking & Bladder Cancer Connection

It’s been known for a while that smoking increases the risk of developing bladder cancer. Actually, it’s the highest risk factor – smokers are twice as likely to develop bladder cancer than those who don’t smoke.

According to the American Cancer Society,

Smoking causes about half of the deaths from bladder cancer among men (48%) and almost a third of bladder cancer deaths in women (28%). Some of the carcinogens (cancer-causing chemicals) in tobacco smoke are absorbed from the lungs and get into the blood. From the blood, they are filtered by the kidneys and concentrated in urine. These chemicals in urine damage the cells that line the inside of the bladder. This damage increases the chance of cancer developing.

Now, there’s evidence that the risk has risen even more since the mid 1990s and that the length of time of smoking has more of an effect on bladder cancer than more cigarettes over a shorter period of time. These findings were published online in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

This finding, say researchers, may have something to do with how the composition of cigarettes have changed over the years; there may be more bladder carcinogens in cigarettes now than there were years ago. As well, even if people switch to lower tar or lower nicotine cigarettes, they most often take deeper and more frequent puffs to meet their nicotine needs – therefore exposing them to just as much or more carcinogens as they would be exposed to with regular cigarettes.

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Image: MorgueFile.com