As More Women Smoke, Their Risk of Bladder Cancer Grows

Smoking rates have dropped over the last several years, but they now seem to be stuck at about 20 percent for the nation. And nearly as many women now smoke as men, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Meanwhile, bladder cancer rates haven't gone down much in the last 30 years. While experts have known for a long time that cigarette smoking is a main cause of bladder cancer, they thought for a while that women were less likely than men to get it from smoking. But a new analysis, published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that women smokers are just as vulnerable to bladder cancer as men.

The scientists from the National Cancer Institute who authored the study say they think they know why: More women are smoking, and cigarettes have become more deadly. >