how long it’s been since a person quit and reduction in bladder cancer risk have been inconsistent.
In this study, Li’s team examined data from about 144,000 participants in the Women’s Health Initiative, a long-term study of postmenopausal women in the U.S.
Of those, 52.7% never smoked; 40.2% were former smokers and 7.1% were current smokers.
As of 2017, there had been 870 cases of bladder cancer among women. Compared to those who never smoked, former smokers had twice the risk of bladder cancer and current smokers had more than triple the risk.
Researchers found a 25% reduction in risk among former smokers in the 10 years after they quit, and it continued to fall more slowly after that. But even 30 years after quitting, ex-smokers still had a higher risk of bladder cancer than women who never smoked.
Compared with current smokers, former smokers had a 39% decrease in