Relative and absolute risks of cigarette smoking on major histologic types of lung cancer in Korean men

Objectives: Most prospective cohort studies of lung cancer focus on the relative risk rather than the absolute risk of smoking. Methods: This prospective study included 437,976 Korean men (cohort for the National Health Insurance Cooperation Study), >= 40 years old, who were free of cancer and smoking related chronic disease at the time of enrollment. Based on new incidence cases, relative risk and excess risk, and their 95% confidence intervals (95% CI), were estimated with the standard Poisson regression model after adjustment for age or other demographic factors and other confounders. Results: During the 6-year follow-up period of 3,142,451 person-years, 1,357 new lung cancer cases were identified. Based on the multivariate-adjusted relative risk for current smokers, the strongest association with smoking was shown for small-cell lung cancer (relative risk, 21.7; 95% Cl, 8.0-58.5) followed by squamous cell carcinoma (relative risk, 11.7; 95% CL 7.1-19.4) and then adenocarcinoma (relative risk, 2.1; 95% Cl, 1.6-2.7). In current smokers with >= 40 pack-years of exposure, excess risk was highest for squamous cell carcinoma (excess risk, 33.8; 95% Cl, 10.2-109.8) followed by adenocarcinoma (excess risk, 26.7; 95% Cl, 10.3-64.4), and then small-cell carcinoma (excess risk, 16.3; 95% CI, 1.8144.3). Conclusions: In Korean men, cigarette smoking was as important a risk factor for adenocarcinoma as it was for squamous cell and small-cell lung cancer.