As with cancer risk, the further adjustments for smoking attenuated the observed associations between biomarkers and cancer mortality; RR = 1.15 (95 % CI 0.81-1.64, p-trend = 0.43) for CRP, and RR = 1.39 (95 % CI 0.98-1.97, p-trend = 0.42) for leukocyte count. The gene discussed is CRP; the disease is cancer.