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Active and Passive Smoking and Pathological Indicators of Lung Cancer Risk in an Autopsy Study
Dimitrios Trichopoulos, MD;
Franco Mollo, MD;
Lorenzo Tomatis, MD;
Emmanuel Agapitos, MD;
Luisa Delsedime, MD;
Xenophon Zavitsanos, MD;
Anna Kalandidi, MD;
Klea Katsouyanni, DrMedSc;
Elio Riboli, MD;
Rodolfo Saracci, MD
JAMA. 1992;268(13):1697-1701.
Abstract
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Objective.
—The association between involuntary smoking and lung cancer has been supported by most epidemiologic studies, but a number of authors and interest groups claim that the possibility of bias has not been excluded. Few autopsy-based studies have explored the role of active smoking and other exposures in lung carcinogenesis, and none has been previously done to examine the role of passive smoking. We have undertaken such an autopsy-based study in Athens, Greece.
Design.
—Lung specimens were taken at autopsy from 400 persons 35 years of age or older, of both genders, who had died within 4 hours from a cause other than respiratory or cancer in Athens or the surrounding area. For each person at least seven tissue blocks were taken from the main and lobar bronchi and at least five blocks from the parenchyma, including an average of about 20 smaller cartilaginous bronchi and membranous bronchioles. The specimens were examined without knowledge of the exposures of the particular subject in Turin, Italy. For 283 (71%) of the subjects the preservation of the bronchial epithelium was satisfactory for pathological examination, and for 206 among them (73%) an interview could be arranged with their next of kin, focusing on smoking habits of the deceased and their spouses, as well as other variables. The interviewers were not aware of the results of the pathological examinations.
Main Outcome Measure.
—Specimens were examined for basal cell hyperplasia, squamous cell metaplasia, cell atypia, and (in membranous bronchioles and bronchiolo-alveolar airways) mucous cell metaplasia, ie, pathological entities that may be lung cancer risk indicators or epithelial, possibly precancerous, lesions (EPPL). The gland and wall thicknesses were also measured and their ratio calculated (Reid Index).
Results.
—In comparison with nonsmokers, EPPL values were significantly higher among current smokers and higher, but not significantly so, among former smokers. Furthermore, EPPL values were significantly higher among deceased nonsmoking women married to smokers rather than to nonsmokers. In this set of data neither occupation nor residence was associated with EPPL, but this could be due to the poor correlation of residential history with exposure to air pollution and the lack of adequate standardization of contemporary Greek occupations. The Reid Index was higher among smokers and former smokers in comparison with non-smokers, among subjects with mainly urban residence in comparison with those with mainly rural residence, and among nonsmoking women married to smokers in comparison with those married to nonsmokers, but none of these differences was statistically significant.
Conclusion.
—These results provide support to the body of evidence linking passive smoking to lung cancer, even though they are based on a study methodologically different from those that have previously examined this association.
(JAMA. 1992;268:1697-1701)
Author Affiliations
From the Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Mass (Drs Trichopoulos and Katsouyanni); the Department of Biomedical Sciences and Human Oncology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy (Drs Mollo and Delsedime); the International Agency for Research on Cancer (World Health Organization), Lyon, France (Drs Tomatis, Riboli, and Saracci); and the Departments of Pathology (Dr Agapitos) and Hygiene and Epidemiology (Drs Zavitsanos and Kalandidi), University of Athens Medical School, Athens, Greece.
Footnotes
Reprint requests to Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA 02115 (Dr Trichopoulos).
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