Black Smokers May Face Higher Death Risk Than Whites: CDC

A study conducted in Missouri suggests that smoking may be even more lethal for blacks than it is for whites. In fact, researchers say the smoking related death rate for blacks is nearly one-fifth higher than it is for whites in that state. The study was conducted by researchers at the Office on Smoking and Health at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They analyzed data from 2003-2007 found that the average annual smoking-attributable death rate was 358 per 100,000 for blacks in Missouri and 286 per 100,000 for whites, a difference of 18 percent. That racial difference was larger among men than among women.

Blacks had a 26 percent higher smoking-related death rate for cancer and a 53 percent higher smoking-related death for circulatory diseases, but a 32 percent lower smoking-related death rate for respiratory diseases. Overall, smoking caused about a third of all cancer deaths, 15.3 percent of all circulatory disease deaths, and 46.5 percent of all respiratory disease deaths in Missouri between 2003 and 2007, according to the study. The findings appear in this week's issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Based on the data, the CDC says that "states should continue to implement population-wide tobacco control interventions that reach all racial groups."

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'Stop Smoking' Ads That Target Emotions Seem to Work Best

Television ads that encourage people to quit smoking are most effective when they use a "why to quit" strategy that includes either graphic images or personal testimonials, a new study suggests. The three most common broad themes used in smoking cessation campaigns are why to quit, how to quit and anti-tobacco industry, according to scientists at RTI International, a research institute. The study authors examined how smokers responded to and reacted to TV ads with different themes. They also looked at the impact that certain characteristics such as cigarette consumption, desire to quit, and past quit attempts had on smokers' responses to the different types of ads.

"While there is considerable variation in the specific execution of these broad themes, ads using the 'why to quit' strategy with graphic images or personal testimonials that evoke specific emotional responses were perceived as more effective than the other ad categories," lead author Kevin Davis, a senior research health economist in RTI's Public Health Policy Research Program, said in an institute news release. Davis and his colleagues also found that those who had less desire to quit and those who had not tried quitting in the past year had significantly less favorable responses to all types of smoking cessation ads. The same was true, to a lesser extent, for smokers with high levels of cigarette consumption.

"These findings suggest that smokers clearly differ in their reactions to cessation-focused advertising based on their individual desire to quit, prior experience with quit attempts and, to a lesser degree, cigarette consumption. These are important considerations for campaign creators, designers and media planners," Davis said. The study, published online in the journal Tobacco Control, used data from 7,060 adult smokers in New York State who took part in an online survey. On Wednesday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced a new "comprehensive tobacco control strategy" that would include not only graphic photos on packs of cigarettes, but bold statements such as "Smoking Will Kill You."

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As Science Unlocks Secrets, Cancer Rates Fall

Cancer is one of the most feared diseases on the planet, and the second leading cause of death in the United States. But medical science is slowly conquering cancer, according to an assessment of cancer trends produced by the U.S. National Cancer Institute in conjunction with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Cancer Society and the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries. Death rates and diagnosis rates from all cancers combined are declining significantly, both for men and women overall, and for most racial and ethnic populations within the United States, the report found.

New diagnoses for all types of cancer combined decreased an average of almost 1 percent a year from 1999 to 2006, and deaths attributed to cancer decreased 1.6 percent a year from 2001 to 2006, according to the report, an annual evaluation released each December. Doctors predict that the rates will keep falling because research has begun unlocking the secrets of how different cancers begin and develop. "We're beginning to understand that each cancer has an individual pathway to development," said Dr. Alan G. Thorson, president of the American Cancer Society, a clinical professor of surgery and director of colon and rectal surgery at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb. "We know now how to look at cancer, find its source and go for that source, which makes all the difference in the world."

The decrease in cancer incidence and deaths has been driven mainly by advances in detecting and treating the major types of cancer in men and women, according to the report. Incidence and death rates are declining for lung, prostate and colorectal cancer in men, and for breast and colorectal cancer in women, the report said. Also, increases in the other major cancer for women, lung cancer, have tapered off, with rates remaining stable since 2003. There's no single explanation for the decrease in these major cancers, doctors said. Rather, the decreases are chalked up to effective detection and treatment tools designed for each form of cancer. For example, public tobacco policy has been crucial in reducing lung cancer rates in men and leveling them out for women, said Dr. Brenda Edwards, associate director of the Surveillance Research Program at the U.S. National Cancer Institute.

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Diabetes Drug Metformin Linked to Lower Lung Cancer Rate in Mice

A drug widely used to treat high blood sugar in type 2 diabetics may hold some promise in the prevention of tobacco-induced lung cancer, according to extremely preliminary findings in a mouse study. In the September issue of Cancer Prevention Research, researchers report that metformin was associated with a substantial reduction (up to 73 percent) in the number of tumors mice developed when they were given a common carcinogen found in tobacco. Despite the fact that there have been no randomized controlled trials on whether metformin really can prevent cancer, researchers expressed excitement both over this animal study and previous epidemiological evidence pointing to this possibility.

Metformin has been in use for more than two decades and is currently prescribed to 40 million Americans. "This is a very safe agent and has been around for a while," said Cancer Prevention Research editor-in-chief Dr. Scott Lippman, chair of thoracic head and neck medical oncology at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, at a Wednesday news conference. "The evidence in diabetic humans is very convincing and very strong," added Dr. Phillip Dennis, a senior investigator with the U.S. National Cancer Institute and senior author on the lung cancer paper. "Almost every epidemiological study I can think of found a decreased cancer incidence in diabetics taking metformin. The reduction is real and ranges from 30 to 70 percent."

The researchers thought metformin's possible cancer-lowering properties suggested the need for clinical trials to investigate whether the drug might help prevent tumors in smokers at high risk of developing cancer. Others believed that the finding might influence the choice of drugs in people with diabetes. "All other things being equal, many diabetics face a choice of oral agents, and early evidence that metformin may have an effect on the oncology side may increasingly play a role in decision-making," said Dr. Michael Pollack, professor of medicine and oncology at McGill University in Montreal. "We can't ignore this, but we can't say we have FDA approval for metformin for cancer indications."

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