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Relationship between cigarette use and prostate cancer risk: what do we know and what should we do?

Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases volume 26, pages 516–518 (2023)Cite this article

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Prostate cancer is the second most commonly diagnosed cancer and the fifth leading cause of cancer death among men worldwide, with an estimated 1,414,000 new cancer cases and 375,304 deaths in 2020 [1]. Based upon the 2019 Global Burden of Disease study, there were an estimated 2.5 million cancer deaths attributable to smoking globally, with approximately 2 million deaths in the male population [2].

Although IARC Monographs assess that there is “no clear evidence of any risk of prostate cancer” in case-control and cohort investigations [3], the connection between smoking and prostate cancer has been hypothesized for numerous years. Epidemiological analyses have revealed that individuals actively smoking encounter an elevated likelihood of prostate cancer compared with nonsmokers counterparts, particularly accentuating the amplified risk correlated to advanced disease manifestations [4]. Although some research has not conclusively established a link with the total prostate cancer risk [5, 6], a notable portion of academic studies has adeptly determined an association between smoking and mortality explicitly linked to prostate cancer [7,8,9,10,11,12]. Kenfield et al. found that smoking at the time of prostate cancer diagnosis is associated with an increased risk of biochemical recurrence, as well as overall, cancer-specific, and cardiovascular disease mortality in a prospective cohort of 5366 men with prostate cancer. They also found that quitting smoking for at least ten years before diagnosis may reduce the risk of prostate cancer-specific mortality and recurrence [13].

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Urological Surgery, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    José Ignacio Nolazco & Steven L. Chang

  2. Servicio de Urología, Hospital Universitario Austral, Universidad Austral, Pilar, Argentina

    José Ignacio Nolazco

  3. Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

    Lorelei A. Mucci

  4. Department of Urogenital Cancer, Maria Skłodowska-Curie National Research Institute of Oncology, Warsaw, Poland

    Roman Sosnowski

  5. Department of Cancer Epidemiology and Primary Prevention, Maria Skłodowska Curie National Research Institute of Oncology, Warsaw, Poland

    Krzysztof Przewoźniak

  6. Global Institute of Family Health, Calisia University, Calisia, Poland

    Krzysztof Przewoźniak

  7. Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA

    Steven L. Chang

  8. Department of Urology, Sant’Andrea Hospital, Sapienza University, Rome, Italy

    Cosimo De Nunzio

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Conceptualization, Writing—original draft: JIN. Reviewing, editing, and providing critical feedback in shaping the manuscript.: LAM, RS, KP, SLC, and CDN. Supervision: CDN.

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Correspondence to José Ignacio Nolazco.

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Nolazco, J.I., Mucci, L.A., Sosnowski, R. et al. Relationship between cigarette use and prostate cancer risk: what do we know and what should we do?. Prostate Cancer Prostatic Dis 26, 516–518 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41391-023-00671-5

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