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Cigarette smoking and leukemia: results from the Lutheran Brotherhood Cohort Study

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Abstract

In a 20-year follow-up (1966–86) of 17,633 White males who described tobacco use in a mailed questionnaire sent in 1966, there were 74 deaths from leukemia (including 30 myeloid, 30 lymphatic, and 14 other and unspecified leukemia). Among men who ever smoked cigarettes, increased risks were observed for lymphatic (relative risk [RR]=2.7), and other and unspecified leukemia (RR=1.5); risks rose with increasing number of cigarettes smoked, although the dose-response relationship was statistically significant only for total leukemia. Mortality from myeloid leukemia was not elevated, except among those smoking over a pack of cigarettes per day. Results from this cohort support a relationship between cigarette smoking and leukemia. Further studies are needed to elucidate subtype associations with cigarette smoking.

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Authors
  1. Martha S. Linet
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  2. Joseph K. McLaughlin
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  3. Ann W. Hsing
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  4. Sholom Wacholder
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  5. Harvey T. Co-Chien
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  6. Leonard M. Schuman
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  7. Erik Bjelke
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  8. William J. Blot
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Additional information

Drs Linet, McLaughlin, Hsing, Wacholder, and Blot are with the Epidemiology and Biostatistics Program, National Cancer Institute. Dr Co-Chien is at Westat, Inc., Rockville, Maryland, USA, Dr Schuman is at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. Dr Bjelke is with the Center for Epidemiologic Research, University of Bergen, Norway. Address correspondence to Dr Linet, Epidemiology and Biostatistics Program, National Cancer Institute, Executive Plaza North Room 415B, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.

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Linet, M.S., McLaughlin, J.K., Hsing, A.W. et al. Cigarette smoking and leukemia: results from the Lutheran Brotherhood Cohort Study. Cancer Causes Control 2, 413–417 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00054302

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00054302

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