New cancer risk to female smokers revealed by study

Health Correspondent

Friday 10 August 2012

FEMALE smokers are at a higher risk of developing certain cancers of the blood, immune system and bone marrow, a major new study has revealed.

AT RISK: 23% of adult women smoke in Scotland, higher than in other parts of the UK. Picture: Colin Mearns

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Helen Puttick Health Correspondent

The research involving more than one million middle-aged women from across the UK showed that the risks of Hodgkin's lymphoma and some bone marrow cancers were doubled in women who smoked about 20 cigarettes a day.

Experts say the findings also provide a new insight into the link between tobacco and blood cancers, but fear the public are still not fully aware of the widespread health consequences of smoking.The details have been released in the British Journal of Cancer as a UK-wide consultation on banning branding on packets of tobacco and cigarettes ends today. Vicky Crichton, public affairs manager for Cancer Research UK in Scotland, said of the new research: "This is yet another stark reminder of the dangers of smoking."There are only two options to eliminate the illnesses caused by smoking and they are to help smokers quit and to stop young people from starting to smoke in the first place."Reducing the appeal of cigarettes is essential to prevent young people from starting to smoke and so plain packaging of tobacco is the vital next step we need to make."Researchers at Oxford University looked at the health experiences of 1.3 million middle-aged women involved in what is known as the Million Women study.Over the course of a decade, 9000 of them developed blood cancer leukaemia, a cancer of the immune system or of the bone marrow.Six in every 1000 women who had never smoked developed one of these cancers, rising to almost eight in every 1000 smokers. In some cases, the difference was much higher.Professor Valerie Beral, one of the study authors and director of the Cancer Research UK Epidemiology Unit at Oxford University, said: "These results highlight yet again how important smoking is as a cause of cancer. "Smoking raises the risk of many types of cancer, not just lung cancer, and also the risk of heart attack and stroke, which many people may not be aware of."Surveys by Cancer Research UK show that while most people know smoking causes cancers of the lung, mouth and throat, few realise that tobacco is also linked to cancers of the liver, pancreas, bowel, kidney, cervix, and bladder. The new research means other cancers can also be added to this list.In Scotland in 2010, 490 women were diagnosed with immune system cancer non-hodgkins lymphoma and there were 194 deaths from the disease. There were 230 new female leukaemia cases and 75 new Hodgkins cancer cases and 190 deaths from the two combined.Around 23% of adult women smoke in Scotland, higher than other parts of the UK.Sheila Duffy, chief executive of leading anti-tobacco charity ASH Scotland, said of the Oxford University findings: "This further evidence on the dangers of smoking gives us yet another reason why we need to protect people from an industry which puts profit over health and lives. "We know the industry targets young people as replacement smokers, especially young women, and we as a society need to prevent people from taking up smoking in the first place."We also know that plain, standardised packaging will make tobacco less attractive to young people. "The argument over plain packaging has been won and it is it time to bring forward legislation."

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New cancer risk to female smokers revealed by study

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