Cancer cigarette smoking

Worldwide, smoking tobacco causes over four million smoking-related deaths a year, due to coronary heart disease, emphysema and cancers of the mouth, throat and lung. It is also a contributory cause of many other cancers. Cigarette smoke contains around 4000 different compounds and its carcinogenic effect is due to chemicals such as benzo[a] pyrene, not nicotine. So nicotine does not cause these deaths directly, but addiction to nicotine does. 

Cartwright, R. (1982). Occupational bladder cancer and cigarette smoking in West Yorkshire. Scand.J, Work Plnviron. Flealth 8 (Suppl. 1), 79-82. 

Certain compounds of this type are potent carcinogens. One of the most dangerous is benzo[a]pyrene, which has been detected in cigarette smoke. It is believed to be a cause of lung cancer, to which smokers are susceptible. 

The a-tocopherol, P-carotene (ATBC) Cancer Prevention study was a randomised-controlled trial that tested the effects of daily doses of either 50 mg (50 lU) vitamin E (all-racemic a-tocopherol acetate), or 20 mg of P-carotene, or both with that of a placebo, in a population of more than 29,000 male smokers for 5-8 years. No reduction in lung cancer or major coronary events was observed with any of the treatments. What was more startling was the unexpected increases in risk of death from lung cancer and ischemic heart disease with P-carotene supplementation (ATBC Cancer Prevention Study Group, 1994). Increases in the risk of both lung cancer and cardiovascular disease mortality were also observed in the P-carotene and Retinol Efficacy Trial (CARET), which tested the effects of combined treatment with 30 mg/d P-carotene and retinyl pahnitate (25,000 lU/d) in 18,000 men and women with a history of cigarette smoking or occupational exposure to asbestos (Hennekens et al, 1996). 

Albanes, D. et al., Effect of supplemental P-carotene, cigarette smoking and alcohol consumption on serum carotenoids in alpha-tocopherol, P-carotene cancer prevention study, Am. J. Clin. Nutn, 66, 366, 1976. 

Pryor, W.A. (1987). Cigarette smoke and the involvement of free radical reactions in chemical carcinogenesis. Br. J. Cancer 55, 19-23. 

Ballinger SW, Bouder TG, Davis GS, Judice SA, Nicklas JA and Albertini RJ (1996) Mitochondrial genome damage associated with cigarette smoking. Cancer Res 56 5692-5697. 

In an early study in 1971, Cole22 found an association between coffee drinking and lower urinary tract cancer based on a case-control study of 445 cancer patients (345 men, 100 women) and 451 population controls who were matched for age and sex. The analyses had controlled for cigarette smoking and occupation however, there was no consistent dose response relation, and the summary risks were significant only in women,... 

In an investigation of caffeine-containing products in 1993, Slattery et al.75 reported on alcohol, coffee, tea, caffeine, and theobromine intake and the risk of prostate cancer in a Utah study. Data were gathered from a population-based sample of 362 newly diagnosed cases of prostate cancer and 685 age-matched controls. The Utah population was comprised predominantly of members of the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-Day Saints. The researchers found that pack-years of cigarettes smoked and consumption of alcohol, coffee, tea, and caffeine were not associated with prostate cancer risk, but found some possible correlation with increased theobro-... 

Ross, R. K., Paganini-Hill, A., Landolph, J., Gerkins, V., Henderson, B. E., Analgesics, cigarette smoking, and other risk factors for cancer of the renal pelvis and ureter, Cancer Res, 49, 1045, 1989. 

The interaction of carotenoids with cigarette smoke has become a subject of interest since the results of the Alpha-Tocopherol Beta-Carotene Cancer Prevention Study Group 1994 (ATBC) and CARET (Omenn et al. 1996) studies were released. P-Carotene has been hypothesized to promote lung carcinogenesis by acting as a prooxidant in the smoke-exposed lung. Thus, the autoxidation of P-carotene in the presence of cigarette smoke was studied in model systems (toluene) (Baker et al. 1999). The major product was identified as 4-nitro-P-carotene, but apocarotenals and P-carotene epoxides were also encountered. 

Liu, C., F. Lian, D. E. Smith, R. M. Russell, and X. D. Wang. 2003. Lycopene supplementation inhibits lung squamous metaplasia and induces apoptosis via up-regulating insulin-like growth factor-binding protein 3 in cigarette smoke-exposed ferrets. Cancer Res 63(12) 3138-3144. 

Cigarette smoke Bronchogenic carcinoma, esophageal, and bladder cancer... 

Age adjusted lung cancer incidence in the period 1966-1985 was correlated against smoking habits (expressed as average number of cigarettes smoked per day in the grown population) for men and women. 

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