Invasive Cervical Cancer and Smoking in Latin America

Abstract

A case-control study of 667 patients with invasive squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix and 1,430 controls from four Latin American countries showed an age-adjusted relative risk (RR) of 1.2 [95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.0–1.4] for women who had ever smoked, with risk rising to 1.7 (95% CI, 0.8–3.6) for women who smoked ≥ 30 cigarettes per day. The associations were practically eliminated after adjustment for the number of sexual partners and alcohol consumption, probably a surrogate for an unidentified life-style risk factor. Some excess risk persisted among women who smoked for extended periods (RR = 1.5 for ≥40 yr), as well as those who began smoking at older ages (RR = 1.7 for> 30 yr), which suggests a late-stage effect. In addition, among women who tested positive for human papillomavims (HPV) type 16 or 18 by filter in situ hybridization, there was an increased risk for women who had ever smoked and a dose-response relationship with the number of cigarettes smoked (adjusted RRs compared with HPV-negative non-smokers = 5.0 for HPV-positive nonsmokers, 5.5 for <10 cigarettes/day, and 8.4 for ≥ 10 cigarettes/day). In contrast, HPV-negative women had no increased risk associated with smoking. These results, from a high-incidence area where intensive smoking among women is still relatively rare, suggest that smoking has a limited effect on cervical cancer risk, possibly only among women with specific types of HPV. [J Natl Cancer Inst 1989;81:205–211]