Medicine: Smoke Signs

At first glance, it seemed to be the first good medical news in years for women smokers. According to the results of a study of 1,237 women, published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine, older women who smoke more than a pack of cigarettes a day have only about half the risk of developing cancer of the endometrium (the lining of the uterus) that their nonsmoking peers have. The report, by a team of researchers from several medical centers, on closer examination gives smokers little reason to celebrate.

The protective influence of heavy smoking, which may result from its effect on estrogen levels, is confined to postmenopausal women. Younger women who smoke stand the same chance of getting uterine cancer as those who abstain. Even for older women the benefit is as evanescent as, well, smoke. Any protection against uterine cancer that smoking offers, scientists say, is far outweighed by the enhanced risk of developing cancers of the throat, stomach, bladder, pancreas and lungs, as well as heart disease, emphysema and bronchitis. Comments Dr. Harvey Fineberg, dean of the faculty of the Harvard School of Public Health: "To smoke cigarettes in order to reduce your risk of uterine cancer is like looking for a gas leak with a lighted match."