Filter cigarette smoking and lung cancer risk; a hospital-based case–control study in Japan

Recent changes in the histology of lung cancer, namely a relative increase of adenocarcinoma compared to squamous cell carcinoma, might be due to a temporal shift from nonfilter to filter cigarettes. To investigate the association between type of cigarette and lung cancer by histological type, we conducted a case–control study in Japan, comprising 356 histologically confirmed lung cancer cases and 162 controls of male current smokers, who provided complete smoking histories. Overall, logistic regression analysis after controlling for age and prefecture revealed decreased risk, as shown by adjusted odds ratios, for both squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma among lifelong filter-exclusive smokers as compared to nonfilter or mixed smokers. This decrease was greater for squamous cell carcinoma than for adenocarcinoma. Among men under 54 years, filter-exclusive smokers displayed increased risk of adenocarcinoma, but decreased risk of squamous cell carcinoma. The recent shift in histology from squamous cell carcinoma to adenocarcinoma, particularly among younger smokers, might be due to changes in cigarette type. However, among subjects aged 65 years or more, no differences in histological type appeared related to type of cigarette smoked, implying that other factors are associated with increases in adenocarcinoma among older Japanese population.