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In Brief
NCI Declares Smoke-Free Conference PolicyThe National Cancer Institute will require all meetings and conferences it sponsors to be held in a state, county, city, or town with a comprehensive smoke-free policy, unless specific circumstances justify an exemption.
The decision is based on data from the latest U.S. Surgeon General's report, which says that secondhand smoke can cause premature death and disease in nonsmokers at a rate of 30,000 to 60,000 deaths a year. It does not apply to meeting where NCI is not the sole or primary organizer or for conferences where locations have already been arranged. The policy becomes effective January 1, 2007.
Higher Risk of Lung Cancer In Women Smokers
Female smokers had a higher risk of developing lung cancer than male smokers, a new study reports, but they were less likely to die from the disease.
Claudia I. Henschke, Ph.D., M.D., of Cornell University in New York, and colleagues examined the lung cancer risk for 7,498 women and 9,427 men 40 years and older who had smoked cigarettes in the past and had been screened for lung cancer in North America between 1993 and 2005. The authors found that 156 women and 113 men were diagnosed with lung cancer.
The study was published in the July 12 issue of JAMA.
Genetic Variation Increases Skin Cancer Risk
Variations in a gene for a skin pigment receptor may increase a person's risk of developing melanoma.
Maria Teresa Landi, M.D., Ph.D., of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md., and colleagues sequenced key parts of the MC1R gene and BRAF cancer gene in patients with two types of melanoma. The BRAF gene is often linked to a type of skin melanoma that occurs without chronic sun exposure. They compared the genetic sequences from patients with melanomas to controls.
The authors found that people with variants of the MC1R gene often developed skin melanomas with BRAF mutations.
The study was published online in Science on June 29.
NSAIDs and Colorectal Cancer Risk in Smokers
Long-term smokers using nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as aspirin, may not have a reduced risk of colorectal cancer, according to a new study.
NSAIDs may reduce colorectal cancer risk. Researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle identified 3,299 people between ages 20 and 74 in the Puget Sound Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results Program, about half of whom had been diagnosed with colon cancer. Participants were interviewed about their smoking habits and NSAID use.
The scientists found that smokers who did not use NSAIDs had the highest risk of colorectal cancer. Smokers who used NSAIDs had a 30% higher risk of colorectal cancer than nonsmokers.
The study was published in the July 1 issue of Cancer Research.
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