Impact of filter cigarette smoking on lung cancer histology, Prev. Med

Background. The rates of lung adenocarcinoma can-cer have risen more rapidly than the rates of lung squamous cell cancer over the past 2 decades. Methods. A case–control study was carried out to as-sess the impact of long-term filter cigarette smoking on the risk of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) and ad-enocarcinoma (AC) of the lung. Results. Odds ratios for SCC among subjects who had smoked only filter cigarettes were reduced rela-tive to lifetime nonfilter cigarette smokers by 30 % for men and by 60 % for women, but no risk reduction was observed for AC of the lung. Conclusion. The predominance of AC over SCC may be due in part to the fact that smokers of very low yield cigarettes tend to compensate for the lower nicotine levels by inhaling more deeply and frequently, leading to greater exposure of the peripheral lung to the car-cinogens in tobacco smoke, and in part to the in-creased concentration of nitrosamines that preferen-tially produce AC in laboratory animals. © 1997 Academic Press Key Words: lung cancer; histology; smoking; filter; nicotine