More than half of bladder cancers in the US are the result of smoking, and 90 per cent of smokers with the disease are aware of the connection, according to a new study.
"Bladder cancer is actually the second most common smoking-related cancer, second only to lung," said lead author Dr. Jeffrey C. Bassett of Kaiser Permanente Southern California in Anaheim.
Although previous studies had suggested that few people understood the connection between bladder cancer and tobacco, this new study found the opposite, he said.
"Bladder cancer patients smoking at diagnosis appear to accept that their own smoking caused their cancer, positioning them for a more motivated (and more likely successful) attempt at quitting," Bassett said.
As with other cancers, quitting at diagnosis reduces the risk that cancer will recur or spread, Bassett said.
"The reality is that everybody should stop smoking," said Dr. Alan M. Nieder, of Columbia University's Division of Urology at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, Florida.
"Urologists in particular should use every office visit to tell patients not to smoke," Nieder told Reuters Health by phone. He was not part of the new study.
If the risk of lung or bladder cancer doesn't convince a younger patient to quit, stressing the risk of erectile dysfunction or facial aging may, he said.
"The Surgeon General has now linked 18 different types of cancer to tobacco use," Bassett said. "Only two of these are well known in general public - lung cancer and cancer of the head/neck."
http://yourhealth.asiaone.com/content/most-smokers-bladder-cancer-know-tobacco-was-cause
