Work

Reply: Hookah, opium, and tobacco smoking in relation to ESCC

Year: 2009

Type: letter

Abstract: We thank Dr Chaouachi for his interest in our study. Dr Chaouachi suggests that the association of hookah and oesophageal cancer observed in our study ( Nasrollahzadeh et al, 2008 ) may be due to smoking opium, rather than tobacco, by a hookah. Whereas this is a very interesting hypothesis, it is unlikely to explain the results associated with hookah use. The prevalence of hookah use in the study area is low, and only 5% of the study population have used hookah ever. Smoking opium by hookah is not the custom of the local people in North East Iran. In addition, the high sensitivity (93%) of the study questionnaire for detecting opium use significantly decreases any misclassification of exposure to opium ( Abnet et al, 2004 ). We think that the conclusion of our study, that every type of tobacco smoking with or without using opium is not a major contributor to oesophageal cancer risk in the study area of Golestan, remains valid.

Source: British Journal of Cancer

DOI: 10.1038/sj.bjc.6604959

Authors: R Malekzadeh, D Nasrollahzadeh, F Kamangar