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Smoking increased risk for squamous cell carcinoma
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A history of current or prior smoking increased the risk for squamous cell carcinoma but did not affect risk for basal cell carcinoma, according to the results of a meta-analysis.
Prior research has been inconclusive about whether smoking increased risk for non-melanoma skin cancers. Furthermore, although smoking increases risk for oral squamous cell carcinomas, it is not clear if the same is true for cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma.
In the meta-analysis, researchers included observational epidemiologic studies with participants aged 18 years or older. Randomized controlled studies were excluded from the analysis. Twenty-five studies were selected for use in the meta-analysis.
Data indicated that smoking was associated with a 52% increased risk for cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (95% CI, 1.15-2.01), but no association was found between smoking and basal cell carcinoma (OR=0.95; 95% CI, 0.82-1.09).
“Although we found no significant association between smoking and the risk of basal cell carcinoma, one study showed that there may be different relationships between smoking and the subtypes of basal cell carcinoma, suggesting that smoking may reduce the risk of superficial multifocal basal cell carcinomas but have no effect on nodular basal cell carcinomas,” the researchers wrote. “However, because this finding is from only one study, further investigations need to be conducted before a differential effect can be reported conclusively.”
The data did not show an association between smoking and non-melanoma skin cancer as a whole (OR=0.62; 95% CI, 0.21-1.79).
In a comment that accompanied the article, Joris A.C. Verkouteren, MD, and Tamar Nijsten, MD, PhD, of the department of dermatology at Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, Netherlands, questioned how many physicians in the skin cancer field ask their patients about current and prior smoking habits and urge patients to quit.
“In contrast to several risk factors of squamous cell carcinoma, including prior UV radiation exposure, smoking is a modifiable factor. Thus, active risk reduction by smoking cessation is possible, especially since the meta-analysis suggests that current smokers are at the highest squamous cell carcinoma risk,” Verkouteren and Nijsten wrote. “Furthermore, physicians could make use of the current cancer experience in motivating patients to discontinue smoking, which has many additional important health benefits.”
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