History of tobacco use among Kentucky women diagnosed with invasive cervical cancer: 1997-1998.

An association between cigarette smoking and cervical cancer has been demonstrated by numerous epidemiologic studies. However, just because there is an association does not mean that there is an etiologic connection between tobacco use and cervical cancer, although some studies do indicate such a relationship. There are numerous potential explanations, including smoking as a behavior being associated with other behaviors that place women at increased risk of HPV infection. In a state like Kentucky, where the prevalence of smoking is so very high, one would expect that the disease burden from cervical cancer would also be high. A review of available data on invasive cervical cancer cases from the Kentucky Cancer Registry shows that this is indeed the case, with the incidence rate of invasive cervical cancer in Kentucky being as much as 40% higher than the SEER rate during the 1991-1998 time period. An analysis of available tobacco use history data from the KCR on women diagnosed with invasive cervical cancer during 1997-1998 shows that 61% of them indicated a history of tobacco use.