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How Smoking Advances Pancreatic Cancer
Researchers have added yet another piece to the puzzle that links cigarette smoking with cancer of the pancreas, one of the deadliest forms of cancer.
In a study published in the International Journal of Cancer, US researchers zeroed in on the way a healthy cell turns cancerous.
They found that the chemicals produced by burning tobacco – polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) – interfere with communication between the body’s cells, contributing to the promotion of cancer.
“These PAH chemicals are related to the process of carcinogenesis, not by mutating the stem cell, but by triggering the stem cell that’s been previously mutated to proliferate,” said James Trosko, a professor of paediatrics and human development. “This finding has major implications, including the possibility that dietary intervention might interrupt or even reverse the promotion of pancreatic cancers.”
Until now, most scientists thought that PAHs produced by burning tobacco mutated genes which, in turn, triggered the cancer mechanism.
Pancreatic cancer is one of the more deadly forms of cancer, with an average survival rate of only about a year. Every year in the UK, more than 7,100 cases of pancreatic cancer are diagnosed and it causes almost 7,250 deaths, according to Cancer Research UK.
PAHs are formed when any substance containing certain proteins is burned, including foods.
“PAHs are all over,” said Trosko. “When you grill a steak or a hamburger, for example, you get exactly the same class of chemicals.”
Past studies have linked smoking to lung and mouth cancer (Read more: Mouth Cancer Linked to Smoking and Drinking). It’s also been found to prompt smoking in foetuses in later life (Read more: Pregnant Smokers 'Predetermine Habits of Kids’).
In fact, health workers have even called for smokers to be removed from waiting lists for surgery in order to cut costs, since smoking up to the time of any surgery increases cardiac and pulmonary complications, impairs tissue healing, and is associated with more infections (Read more: Should Smokers be Refused Surgery?).
And, worryingly, it’s even been found that smokers simply ignore the health warnings written on cigarette packets (Read more: Smokers 'Immune' to Health Warnings).
This new research is the culmination of nearly 30 years of work in Trosko’s lab. It was in 1979 that Trosko, colleagues and students demonstrated that tumour-promoting chemicals interfered with a cell’s ability to communicate with other cells. Later, this group isolated adult human pancreatic stem cells from human pancreatic tissue.
“Since we had the system here in our lab, we decided to see if PAHs would act as a tumour promoter,” he said. “And sure enough they did.”
The good news is that people who quit smoking can dramatically improve their chances of avoiding cancers.
“If these chemicals act like cancer promoters and not initiators,” Trosko said, “then quitting smoking can assist in interrupting the process.”
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