Variation in bladder cancer mortality among States was highly correlated (r = +0.73) with the per capita cigarette sales estimated from State tax revenues. This relationship was independent of urbanization and similar in magnitude to that observed between cigarette consumption and cancer of the respiratory tract. In contrast, leukemia showed no correlation with cigarette consumption, whereas kidney cancer had an intermediate but significant relationship (r = +0.49). These findings are consistent with other evidence relating the distribution of bladder cancer to smoking patterns of the population, and suggest that cancers of the upper urinary tract may also be associated with cigarette smoking.
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Joseph F. Fraumeni (1968) studied this question.