Spanish study relates 20% of all cancers to smoking

Smoking is directly responsible for 20 percent of all cancers, not just lung and throat cancer, a study developed in the Catalan Institute of Oncology and the Hospital Duran I Reynals showed Thursday. The study followed 441,211 people over a period of 11 years and of these 14,563 developed a tumor directly related to their smoking habits. The study, which is published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, said that 80 percent of the lungs and larynx as well as between 20 and 50 percent of tumors related to respiration, digestion or the urinary tract are also related to smoking. Meanwhile 25 percent of liver, 14 percent of ovary and 8 percent of cases of kidney cancers are as a result of smoking, said the study, which was published ahead of Friday's World Anti-Tobacco Day. The methodology of the study saw investigators compare the number of cases of cancer which appeared among smokers or former smokers and those who have never smoked in their lives. Spain sees 200,000 new cases of cancer reported every year and it is estimated that around 40,000 of these cases are linked to tobacco in a country where a ban on smoking in bars, restaurants and other public spaces only came into effect in January 2011. Meanwhile, with their new data in hand, the authors of the study calculate that tobacco is directly responsible for 270,000 new cases of cancer in European countries including Italy, Spain, Britain, Greece, Germany and Denmark every year. This Spanish study forms part of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition Study (EPIC), which is being carried out in 23 centers in 10 European countries and which looks at the effect of various habits, diet, tobacco and alcohol consumption, exercise, etc on the health of the continent.