Systematic review of the epidemiological evidence comparing lung cancer risk in smokers of mentholated and unmentholated cigarettes

Table 21 Approximate estimation of the relationship in males between the mentholated/non-mentholated lung cancer relative risk (RR) and the estimated lung cancer risk of Black people relative to White people

		Never smoked	Ex smoker			Current smoker			Total
		Total	Total	Menthol	Non-menthol	Total	Menthol	Non-menthol	Total
		(1)		(2)	(3)		(4)	(5)
	White people
	Frequency¹	0.501	0.262			0.237			1.000
	Menthol proportion^b			0.218	0.782		0.218	0.782
(a)	Frequency by menthol	0.501		0.057	0.205		0.052	0.185	1.000
(b)	Risk relative to never smokers^c	1.00	9.36	9.36RR	9.36	22.36	22.36RR	22.36
	Black people
	Frequency¹	0.572	0.158			0.270			1.000
	Menthol proportion^b			0.835	0.165		0.835	0.165
(a)	Frequency by menthol	0.572		0.132	0.026		0.225	0.045	1.000
(b)	Risk relative to never smokers^c	1.00	9.36	9.36RR	9.36	22.36	22.36RR	22.36
	Assumed value of RR				Black/White relative risk^d
	1.0				0.980
	1.1				1.035
	1.2				1.088
	1.3				1.138
	1.5				1.234
	1.8				1.365
	2.0				1.445

^a See Table 3.
^b See Table 1 - proportions assumed the same for current and ex smokers.
^c The source of the relative risk estimates of 9.36 for ex smokers and 22.36 for current smokers is the 1989 US Surgeon-General's Report Table 6 p150 [65]. As they are based on Cancer Prevention Study II starting in 1982, a study in a predominantly White population, the relative risk estimates have been assumed to apply to non-mentholated cigarette smokers. RR is the assumed relative risk for mentholated compared to non-mentholated cigarette smoking.
^d Estimated by summing for each race, the product of rows (a) and (b) over columns (1), (2), (3), (4) and (5), and then dividing the total for Black people by the total for White people.

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