Smokers risk second cancer

Researchers pooled data from five studies encompassing 6386 patients with bladder cancer, 3179 with kidney cancer, 2967 with head and neck cancer and 2552 with stage one lung cancer. Compared with people who had never smoked, the chance of a second smoking-associated malignancy among those smoking at least

20 cigarettes per day was between three and five times higher among survivors of stage one lung (hazard ratio [HR] 3.26), bladder (HR 3.67), head and neck (HR 4.45), and kidney cancers (HR 5.33). These estimates were similar to those for first smoking-associated cancer (HR 5.41). Mortality was up to three-fold higher among survivors of stage one lung (HR 3.08), bladder (HR 2.48), head and neck (HR 1.68), and kidney cancers (HR 1.57) who continued to smoke.