salmaislesbiano@yahoo.com (salma)
grunted and pushed out the following thought......

Does tobacco cause cancer?

http://www.teenwag.com/poll?n=1505

====> duh.....   ask a long term smoker who has lung cancer and see what
they say........

~ curtis

knowledge is power - growing old is mandatory - growing wise is optional    
"Many more men die with prostate cancer than of it. Growing old is
invariably fatal. Prostate cancer is only sometimes so."
http://community.webtv.net/PALMER_ENT/doc

Not prostate cancer.  However, a recent study showed that prostate cancer is
worse in smokers.

Smoking Is Associated With Worse Outcomes In Patients With Prostate Cancer
Treated By Radical Radiotherapy
Main Category: Prostate / Prostate Cancer News
Article Date: 16 Apr 2007 - 0:00 PDT

UroToday.com- A history of smoking is associated with an increased risk of
metastatic disease in patients treated with radiotherapy (XRT) for prostate
cancer (CaP), according to a report in the online version of the BJU
International. The work is published by Dr. Pantarotto and colleagues in
Ottawa, Canada.

In this retrospective review, 434 patients were treated with 66Gy of
definitive radiotherapy between 1990 and 1999. To be included, patients had
a PSA level <100ng/ml and no clinical or radiographic evidence of lymph node
or distant metastasis. A smoking history categorized patients as
non-smokers, previous smokers (>6 months smoking history but not smokers at
time of consultation) or current smokers. Biochemical failure was defined by
ASTRO criteria. Data regarding time to biochemical failure, time to local
failure, time to distant failure, overall survival and disease-specific
survival were generated.

A smoking history was obtained in 416 of 434 patients (96%) and the lifetime
prevalence of smoking was 71%. Current smokers constituted 17% and
non-smokers 29% of the cohort. Median follow-up was 70 months and current
smokers presented at a younger median age of 66.4 years, compared with 69.9
years for previous smokers and 70 years for non-smokers. Clinical T stage,
Gleason score and initial PSA were not significantly different between the
smoking categories.

Biochemical, local and distant failure occurred in 44.6%, 23.2%, and 15.5%
of patients, respectively. While biochemical and local failure rates were
similar among smoking groups, a higher proportion of current smokers had
distant failure events. Disease-specific survival was not significantly
different among the three smoking groups, whereas overall survival was worse
for current smokers than non-smokers (46% vs. 26%). The cohort death rate
was 34%, with 39% of those deaths due to CaP. In univariate analysis, both
previous and current smoking was associated with higher distant failure
rates. In multivariate analysis, previous and current smokers had a higher
risk of distant failure, 2.90 and 5.24, respectively. Overall and
CaP-specific survival were not significantly different among the three
smoking groups.

Several mechanisms have been proposed regarding the impact of smoking on CaP
patient outcomes to XRT. Smoking-induced hypoxia secondary to high serum
carboxyhemoglobin levels that interfere with hemoglobin-oxygen dissociation
is thought to significantly contribute. Smoking also likely affects cellular
mechanisms that result in tumor progression.

Jason Pantarotto, Shawn Malone, Simone Dahrouge, Victor Gallant and Libni
Eapen

BJU Int 2006; 99(3): 564-569
Reviewed by UroToday.com Contributing Editor Christopher P. Evans, MD

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