Lung cancer is the most common cancer in the world, and the leading cause of cancer death in the U.S. Cigarette smoking causes approximately 90% of lung cancer cases. Despite modest successes of anti-smoking campaigns, there are over 44 million smoker in the U.S. and 1 billion smokers worldwide. This study is a randomized, double-blinded, placebo-controlled intervention trial to test the efficacy of oral supplementation of 2-phenethyl isothiocyanate (PEITC), a compound present in watercress and other cruciferous vegetables in reduction of risk markers for lung cancer development among smokers. The study has two phases. The short-term phase is to test if oral supplementation of PEITC capsules for one week can enhance the detoxification metabolism of NNK, an established human lung tobacco carcinogen. The long-term phase of the trial is to evaluate if oral supplementation of PEITC capsules for twelve months can reduce the progression of lung lesions toward advanced stage of lung disease. The ultimate goal of this line of research is to develop an effective dietary chemopreventive agent against the development of lung cancer in smokers.

The major goal of this research project is to assess the roles of tobacco carcinogen 4-(methylnitrosamine)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK) and its metabolites along with other environemntal and genetic factors in prediction of lung cancer risk in smokers. The proposed study will utilize two established residential cohorts of Chinese, The Shanghai Cohort Study and The Singapore Chinese Health Study. We will measure the concentrations of NNAL and NNAL-Glucs (NNK metabolites), total nicotine equivalents, and other dietary factors on study subjects. Genetic polymorphisms in NNK- and nicotine-metabolizing genes also will be determined. The ultimate goal of the proposed research is the development of an effective set of non-invasive, predictive markers of lung cancer development that allow for the identification, among smokers, of the relatively small fraction of individuals who are at very high risk for lung cancer.

The purpose of this study is to relate implementation of programs funded by the MN tobacco prevention endowment to changes in tobacco-use behaviors and attitudes of youth within individuals, communities, and the state. This study will help to identify the most beneficial strategies and methods for local and state tobacco control programs, and to measure the overall effect of the MN tobacco prevention endowment on youth. The main outcome measures collected from telephone surveys is tobacco-use behaviors and attitudes among adolescents, and the progression of tobacco use for individuals within cohorts. These will be aggregated at the state and local level. Measures of susceptibility to tobacco use, ever use of tobacco, frequency, quantity, duration and regularity of tobacco use, and attempts to quit using tobacco will be obtained.
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The purpose of this study is to study the effects of local policies on alcohol businesses and their surrounding neighborhoods.

The purpose of this study is to collect and synthesize community knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about recreational tobacco abuse and ceremonial tobacco use in the urban Indian community.

Atherosclerotic peripheral arterial disease (P.A.D.) is a highly prevalent disorder, affecting between 5 and 10% of the adult population (between 8 and 12 million Americans). This disease causes significant disability in many affected individuals, markedly decreasing functional capacity due to exercise-associated limb pain (claudication). If untreated, peripheral vascular disease may progress to cause severe ischemic rest pain, gangrene, or amputation in 3-8% of individuals per year. Cigarette smoking contributes to the high incidence of peripheral arterial disease in the United States. Continued smoking accelerates the progression of stable claudication (exercise-associated limb pain) to more serious limb manifestations of P.A.D., including critical limb ischemia (e.g., ischemic rest pain, ulceration, gangrene, amputation), and to fatal and non-fatal systemic cardiovascular ischemic events (e.g., angina, MI, TIA, and stroke). Those P.A.D. patients who achieve abstinence from smoking have far higher survival rates than those who do not. Abstinence from smoking in this population is associated with markedly decreased rates of myocardial infarction and stroke, resulting in an impressive improvement in survival. There has been little research on ways to promote cessation among P.A.D. patients who smoke. The present study is a randomized trial that tests the effectiveness of providing an aggressive smoking cessation program to P.A.D. patients.

Tobacco use is a largely neglected topic in diabetes management, even though it greatly increases the risk of serious complications, such as macrovascular disease, neuropathy, nephrothopy and retinopathy. The DART Project is a randomized clinical trial that tests the effectiveness of incorporating a smoking cessation component in the BASICS program, a four-session state-of-the-art education program for newly diagnosed persons with diabetes conducted by the International Diabetes Center at the Park Nicollet Health Services. Smokers attending the BASICS program who agree to participate in the study are randomized to a intervention group who receives additional smoking cessation counseling sessions or to a control group who receive the usual BASICS curriculum. Evaluation at 3- and 6-months after enrollment in the study assesses differences between the groups in quit rates and examines whether the inclusion of the smoking cessation component affects diabetic control. This project is now completed and the outcome manuscript is being prepared for submission.

A case-control study of the etiology of pancreatic cancer.

The Iowa Women's Health Study recruited a population-based cohort of 41,837 Iowa women, aged 55-69 years in 1986 to determine whether diet, body fat distribution, and other risk factors were related to cancer incidence

Taft-Hartley Health and Welfare Funds provide health care benefits for approximately one-fifth of all adult smokers in the United States. This project will examine the factors that influence decisions about which benefits are provided by these funds and how those benefits are promoted. Decisions about providing and promoting smoking cessation benefits will be of particular interest. Key informant interviews will be conducted with Fund trustees and adminstrators and with representatives of health care organizations that provide the benefits. Focus groups with smokers covered by these funds will also be conducted.

Young adulthood is a period of transition in smoking patterns and therefore a stage of development that offers an important window of opportunity for intervention. Few studies have focussed on young adults, but there is some indication that smoking is strongly linked to social situations for this age group. Therefore, a promising tobacco control approach for young adults might be to provide desirable entertainment options that are smoke-free. Campaigns for smoke-free events at entertainment venues such as restaurants and bars have been hard-fought, however. Owners are typically concerned that smoke-free events will alienate smokers and lead to a downturn in business. In this study, an alternative weekly newspaper, the Pulse of the Twin Cities, has partnered with researchers at the Division of Epidemiology, to produce, promote and evaluate weekly Smoke-Free Saturday Night events in Twin Cities music venues that target young adults. It is anticipated that this project will provide Minnesota restaurant, clubs, and bar owners concrete demonstrations in their own market area that smoke-free venues can be successful and profitable.

This study collected qualitative data from owners and managers of small worksites (those employing between 10 and 100 workers) in Carver County and smokers employed in small worksites. The goals were to examine the feasibility and to determine best methods for promoting smoking cessation in small worksites.

To conduct an intervention with health confidantes to decrease prenatal and postpartum smoking.

An estimated 6.5 million adult smokers are admitted to the hospital each year in the United States. A hospital stay can be an effective 'teachable moment' for smoking cessation advice. Hospital smoking bans make this a time of enforced abstinence and an opportunity to overcome the symptoms of physical addiction. Patients are removed from their usual environmental cues for smoking, making initial cessation easier. They also might be particularly receptive to preventive health messages at a time of ill health. Finally, health care providers are more accessible to patients, who see them as valid and knowledgeable sources of health information. TEAM is a collaborative effort between the Division of Epidemiology and four Twin Cities hospitals to experimentally test methods to increase long-term smoking cessation rates of hospitalized patients. This project has been completed.

Adolescents have increased their smoking rates, and Minnesota adolescent smoking prevalence exceeds the national average. This study attempts to address adolescent smoking in the dental setting. Both dentists and dental hygienists are interested in addressing smoking and other tobacco use. Smoking has important implications for dental health as well as for general health. Adolescents (14 to 17 years) were recruited into the study and randomly assigned to either a systems-based approach alone in which they receive dentist and hygiene advice to quit or not to start smoking, or to an enhanced-systems approach in which they receive in addition tailored motivational counseling and follow-up by a trained dental hygienist. Smoking prevalence was assessed 3 and 12 months after the dental visit to examine the potential incremental effectiveness and cost effectiveness of the more intensive intervention program. This project is now complete and the outcome manuscript is being prepared for publication.

The primary goal of the pilot project was to incorporate tobacco relevant content into the medical school curriculum at the University of the Philippines. A local champion (Dr. Leni Fernandez) was identified who made contacts with the medical school faculty and leadership. A workshop was held in which participants discussed how tobacco content could be incorporated into courses and also received training in basic tobacco cessation skills. Follow-up evaluation is focusing on changes to the medical school curriculum as well as tobacco cessation activities both within the medical school and in the outside community. This project has now been completed.

Tobacco use is one of the greatest causes of preventable death and disease in human history. India and Indonesia are especially hard hit by the tobacco epidemic and cigarette consumption is actually increasing in both countries. Tobacco cessation capacity is in its infancy in India and virtually nonexistent in Indonesia. Cessation represents the only realistic means of significantly reducing the toll of death and disease from tobacco in the first part of this century. The current project emphasizes capacity building in both of these countries and begins building an infrastructure to promote cessation among tobacco users. A team of international experts participates in a cross-disciplinary effort to do needed formative research, cessation trials, and training. A major objective is widespread dissemination of study findings both during and following the conclusion of the project.

This project involves document searches to examine tobacco industry relationship with and targeting of the US military. In addition, interviews are being conducted with key military personnel.

This randomized controlled trial is comparing web based instruction against face-to-face instruction and a control that simply receives written materials.

The study is an exploratory use of content retrieval and analysis software to examine trends in the cancer message environment. Specifically, the study examines the effect of persuasive information appearing in the news media and the Internet in predicting tobacco use and related behavioral outcomes. The study uses a time series model (InfoTrend™) and also compares several other software packages for analysis of content. The study responds to the National Cancer Institute's PA-02-001 Exploratory Grants for Behavioral Research in Cancer Control. In particular, a key focus of this application is Research Issue 5: Prevention, treatment and control of tobacco use among children, teenagers, and adults.

Children’s exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) results in significant mortality and morbidity and excess medical care expenditures. Counseling parents of new infants about how to reduce their children's ETS exposure (without necessarily quitting smoking themselves) has been shown to be a promising strategy for decreasing infants' ETS exposure. For many parents, it also could be the first step in quitting smoking. This project is a five-year clinical trial funded as part of the University of Minnesota Trandisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Center that is designed to test this harm reduction strategy and examines the viability of its systematic use by a managed care organization. The study is a collaboration among the University of Minnesota, two health plans, HealthPartners and Medica, and WIC.

This project is a group-randomized trial to test the effectiveness of tobacco control programs targeting active duty military personnel. Intervention consists of a comprehensive systems based strategy to reduce tobacco use in military installations representing each of the four armed services. Sixteen bases (four from each service) will be paired and will be randomly assigned to intervention or control conditions.