Researchers Find That Continuance of Smoking after Cancer Diagnosis Increases Risk of Death
Date: 7th December 2013
Researchers from the US have carried out a study and found that if smokers smoke continuously even after being diagnosed with cancer, it is likely to increase the risk of death in comparison to those smokers who quit smoking after being identified as cancer patients.
The researchers conducted the study by examining the relationship between cancer risk and lifestyle habits among the older and middle-aged men living in Shanghai, China. However, for the study, the researchers recruited 18,000 men aged 45 to 64 years within 1986 and 1989.
According to the conclusions derived by the researchers, above 1,600 study participants had fallen prey to cancer by the year 2010. Out of them, 747 were smokers at the time of cancer diagnosis, 545 had stopped smoking before being diagnosed with cancer and 340 participants were non-smokers. Among the 747 smokers at diagnosis, 214 had stopped smoking after diagnosis, 197 participants continued to smoke on a consistent basis and 336 occasionally resorted to smoking.
During the study, the researchers discovered that in comparison to men who stopped smoking after cancer diagnosis, the participants who continued smoking after diagnosis of cancer, had a 59 percent rise in death due to all factors, even after adjusting for certain factors such as the site of cancer, age and the type of treatment received by them.
While evaluating the risk of death among participants who were smokers at the time of diagnosis, the researchers found out that those who continued to smoke after diagnosis, had 76 percent rise n death risk due to all factors in comparison to those who had quit smoking after diagnosis.
The research was published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
Source: dnaindia.com |
