Switching from usual brand cigarettes to a tobacco-heating cigarette or snus: Part 3. Biomarkers of biological effect

Abstract

A randomized, multi-center study of adult cigarette smokers switched to tobacco-heating cigarettes, snus or ultra-low machine yield tobacco-burning cigarettes (50/group) for 24 weeks was conducted. Evaluation of biomarkers of biological effect (e.g. inflammation, lipids, hypercoaguable state) indicated that the majority of consistent and statistically significant improvements over time within each group were observed in markers of inflammation. Consistent and statistically significant differences in pairwise comparisons between product groups were not observed. These findings are relevant to the understanding of biomarkers of biological effect related to cigarette smoking as well as the risk continuum across various tobacco products.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02061917.

• Inflammation
• multi-center randomized study
• oxidative stress
• risk continuum

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge Betsy Bombick, Gary Byrd, John Caraway, Summer Hanna, Tao Jin, Om Makwana, and Thomas Steichen. SAS and all other SAS Institute Inc. product or service names are registered trademarks or trademarks of SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA. ® indicates USA registration.

Declaration of interest

All authors are current employees of RAI Services Company or R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company.

Supplementary material available online

Supplementary Tables 1-4