Vaping, Smoking and Lung Cancer Risk

Abstract Nicotine exposure through the use of electronic delivery systems (vaping) has been found to elevate the risk of certain conditions of the lungs, e.g., vaping associated lung injury, EVALI). However, the potential impact of vaping on lung cancer risk remains unexplored. We, therefore, examined the association of vaping and cigarette smoking with lung cancer risk in a case control study conducted in central Ohio. The study design compared 4,975 individuals with recently diagnosed pathologically confirmed carcinoma of the lung to 27,294 controls without cancer that were group matched at a 5:1 ratio to the cases by age, gender, race and location of residence. Odds ratios (OR) adjusted for gender, age and race revealed a fourfold higher risk of lung cancer among individuals who vaped in combination with chronic smoking (OR=58.9, 95% CI=47.3-70.5) versus individuals who only smoked cigarettes (OR=13.9, 95% CI=12.7-15.3, P<0.001). Further adjustment for prevalent comorbidities, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and coronary artery disease, reduced the magnitude of the OR, but the risk for vaping and smoking (OR=38.7, 95% CI =31.5-47.6) remained fourfold higher than for smoking alone (OR=9.6, 95% CI= 8.7-10.6, P<0.001). This finding was consistent for men and women, with adjustment for pack-years of smoking, and for the main histological cell types of lung cancer. Our results suggest that the addition of vaping to smoking accelerates the risk of developing lung cancer. Simple Summary: We compared cigarette smoking and use of electronic cigarettes (vaping) among 4,975 cases with lung cancer to 27,294 control subjects without cancer. The control subjects were from the same general location as the cases and had the same distribution of age, gender and race as the cases. We found that vaping combined with cigarette smoking was eight times more common in the cases with lung cancer than the control subjects, and the risk of developing lung cancer was four times higher among those who combined vaping and cigarette smoking than those who only smoked. These findings were consistent for men and women and for all major cell types of lung cancer. Our results suggest that vaping in combination with cigarette smoking accelerates the rate of developing lung cancer compared to smoking alone.