Tobacco Documents Online

l. 'T'HEE TOBAGCO, MS"I"ITUTE, zNC. 1776 K STREET, NORTHWEST I WASHINGTON;,D.C. 20006 1 2Q2/296-8434 Arthnar'Stevens, Esq. IrOR]M?ARD 666 Fifth,Avmue New York, N.Y'., 10019 Dear Art: FREDERICK PANZER Vice Presid'ent The attached testimony, given Mzrch 51 to the Kennedy Subemmittee on, Health and Scientific Research by Dr. Marvin Schneiderman of the National Cancer Institute, represents a significant departure frcin the past. Schneidarmam, who has never been easy on tobacco, makes some significant E101 sions that may add balance to the years of one-sided overer.phasis on smking,. For instance: o On page 1, he says "Cancer incidence is stilll increasing,, and thha increases are not all accounted for by cigarette smking. . . "' On page 2, "Even when th.e sroking-related lung cancers are removed~ frtran the incidence data, there were still increases in incidence fron 1969 to~ 1976, the year of our miast recent omplete data. "' o On page 3, "Both the incidence and mortality rates for lung cancer in men are levelling off or perhaps even decreasing up to age 65. This may be due in part, to the lowered' sroking rate`s among older men, and~possibly to the lower tars and. nicotine in modern cigarettes. I hope that' it also ref lects improvements in the wnrk enwir+anment."' r o On page 7, "Mortality and incidence rates are higher, for almost all sites. This cannot all be.ddue to the fact that males are the weaker sex. Nor, as I remarked'earlier, can all of lung cancer be accounted for by cigarette smoking,., In fact, in recent yea:rs less is probably due to smoking than in the past because fe~r older men are smokingiand those who continue to smoke are smoking lawer tar cigarettes. Thus, ta account for this observation we must look elsewhere, particularly at industrial exposures which would be much more likely to affect men."

.e.0 o Also on page 7, "We do not know why black men have more prostate cancer or more lung cancer, even ttlough~ on the average they appear to smoke less. Nor do we ]trxoa why they have more cancer of the esophagus or less bladder cancer than white men, but they do, and investigations are underway to try to find out whhy. "' He ends by reaching the obvious conclusion that since there is so muchh we don't kn7w more researchlis needed. Specifically, or as he puts it -©n page 8, "Wi:thithe problams that many people see in improvi:ng treat- nment, it is essential that we turn totiaard basic research to uncover why some people and' families appear tolbe more susceptible than others, why cell:s change frcm normal to malignant, and' what we can find in' cells that have begun the progression toward cancer, so that aae can interefere with, this progression. The answers to all of these need to omre, and we think they will ceme, frcm basic research. .. Actually, the case may be even stronger than Schneidernan admits since the observations about causes of cancer other than tobacco are based upon s#tatisticall manipulations that accept as proven the conclusion that 85% of'lung cancer in man and! 80% in women are "smoking reiated'.°' With new findings in occupational causation and low level of' radiation,, this conclusion is increasingly difficult to justify. szincerely, 1o l it FR~' PANZER FP%pga Enclosure.

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