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Smoking Kills - Bryan Story - "He wanted you to know" 

Cigarette smoke hangs in the air in the room where Bryan Lee Curtis lies dying of lung cancer.

His head, bald from chemotherapy, lolls on a pillow. The bones of his cheeks and shoulders protrude under taut skin. His eyes are open, but he can no longer respond to his mother or his wife, Bobbie, who married him in a makeshift ceremony in this room three weeks ago after doctors said there was no hope.

In Bryan's emaciated hands, Bobbie has propped a photograph taken just two months ago. It shows a muscular and seemingly healthy Bryan holding his 2-year-old son, Bryan Jr. In the picture, he is 33. He turned 34 on May 10.

A pack of cigarettes and a lighter sit on a table near Bryan's bed in his mother's living room. Even though tobacco caused the cancer now eating through his lungs and liver, Bryan smoked until a week ago, when it became impossible. . . .

--Originally Published on June 15, 1999 in the St. Petersburg Times Posted at www.WhyQuit.com on July 15, 1999

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• Young dying smokers share nightmares online 

Prior to the Internet, the death of a young smoker in their thirties or forties was likely a local obituary page news event, if covered at all. But increasingly, young and middle-aged terminally ill smokers, and their surviving families, are realizing the value of their ordeals to worldwide youth smoking prevention efforts and in helping motivate smokers to quit smoking. Boldly, they are going online to share how the richness of life can be snuffed horribly short by not arresting chemical dependency upon smoking nicotine while still time.

A tour guide with a passion for history, a Camel smoker since age 14, Noni Glykos was married at 30 and gave birth to her only child, a son, at 32. Two months later she was told she had lung cancer, that it had already spread to her brain, and that she only had a few months to live. One month later Noni bravely stood before friends and loved ones at her final birthday party to say goodbye.

Today visitors to WhyQuit watch a video clip of Noni's farewell speech . . .

A two-pack-a-day Marlboro smoker, Bryan Lee Curtis starting smoking cigarettes at age 13. Those reading his story view a haunting image of what small cell lung cancer can do to a human body in just 63 days. Having just turned 34, a photograph shows his grieving wife Bobbie clinging to their two-year-old son, as Brian lies on his death bed. . . .

Visitors are also introduced to notable smoking victims such as playwright Lorraine Hansberry, who wrote "Raisin in the Sun" and died of lung cancer at age 34, and actress Carrie Hamilton, daughter of Carol Burnett, lost to lung cancer at 38.

The most recent notable recognized at WhyQuit is popular Toronto radio DJ Chris "Punch" Andrews who died of lung cancer on March 30, 2008 at age 43.

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Giving up smoking has rapid health benefits, says study  

People who give up smoking begin to improve their health almost immediately, according to a study of more than 100,000 women carried out between 1980 and 2004. Within five years the risk of death from all causes fell by 13%, it found. By 20 years, people had no extra risk of death because of their past smoking history.

The study, by researchers at Harvard medical school in Boston, also highlights the benefits of not starting smoking until later; women who began at 17 were 22% more likely to die within the study period than those who started at 26 or older. The news will encourage the third of smokers in the UK who would like to give up the habit. A survey by the Office for National Statistics released in January found 22% of Britons are smokers, down from 27% at the end of the 1990s and the lowest level since records began.

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• Quit Smoking: Death Risk Drops Fast 

The risk of dying from smoking-related causes drops significantly within just a few years of giving up cigarettes, even for longtime smokers, new research shows.

Within five years of quitting smoking, study participants experienced a 13% reduction in the risk of death from all causes, a 47% risk reduction in heart disease-related deaths, and a 27% reduction in the risk of death from stroke.

Within 20 years of quitting, the risk of dying among former smokers was similar to that of lifetime nonsmokers for most causes of death, with the exception of lung cancer.

The findings suggest that it is never too late to derive health benefits from giving up smoking, says researcher Stacey A. Kenfield, ScD, of the Harvard School of Public Health.

The study appears in the May 7 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association.

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• Smoking and Smoking Cessation in Relation to Mortality in Women 

Smoking is associated with an increased risk of total and cause-specific death, but the rate of mortality risk reduction after quitting compared with continuing to smoke is uncertain. . . .

Prospective observational study of 104 519 female participants in the Nurses' Health Study with follow-up from 1980 to 2004. . . .

Conclusions

Most of the excess risk of vascular mortality due to smoking in women may be eliminated rapidly upon cessation and within 20 years for lung diseases. Postponing the age of smoking initiation reduces the risk of respiratory disease, lung cancer, and other smoking-related cancer deaths but has little effect on other cause-specific mortality. These data suggest that smoking is associated with an increased risk of colorectal cancer mortality but not ovarian cancer mortality.

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Researchers light up lungs to help diagnose disease 

Researchers at the University of Sheffield have developed innovative technology which illuminates a person's lungs and helps clinicians identify if they are functioning correctly. The new technology could result in earlier diagnosis of emphysema and smoking related damage, as well as other lung conditions and diseases.

Lung diseases are of growing concern to the health of the nation, with people suffering from conditions as mild as asthma or as severe as lung cancer. By detecting lung damage early, doctors could help slow down or stop the conditions.

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Immune-Boosting Lung Cancer Therapy Shows Promise 

An immune-boosting treatment for lung cancer patients reduces the risk of cancer relapse after surgery to the same extent as chemotherapy but without the risk of unpleasant side effects, says a Phase II study by Belgian researchers.

The study included 182 patients with non-small-cell lung cancer, the most common form of the disease. All the patients had surgery to remove their cancer and were then randomly assigned to receive either a placebo or MAGE-A3 ASCI (antigen-specific cancer immunotherapeutic) injections over 27 months -- five given at three-week intervals, followed by eight given once every three months.

MAGE-A3 is a tumor-specific antigen produced in 35 percent to 50 percent of non-small-cell lung cancer.

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Possible Viral Links to Lung Cancer Risk Uncovered  

two new studies suggest that two different viral infections might boost a smoker's already substantial risk for developing the disease.

While the specific viruses at issue -- human papillomavirus (HPV) and measles -- may not directly cause lung cancer, they seem to aggravate the negative impact of tobacco, American and Israeli researchers say.

Both findings were presented Friday by separate research teams attending the European Lung Cancer Conference in Geneva.

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Viruses may play a role in lung cancer development 

Papers presented at the 1st European Lung Cancer Conference, jointly organized by the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) and the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) in Geneva, Switzerland highlight emerging evidence that common viruses may contribute to the development of lung cancer.

Experts agree that smoking is by far the most important factor that contributes to lung cancer development. But other factors can play a role in some cases.

In one report at the conference (Abstract No. 124PD; Friday 25th April, 09:50) Dr. Arash Rezazadeh and colleagues from the University of Louisville, Kentucky, USA, describe the results of a study on 23 lung cancer samples from patients in Kentucky.

The researchers found six samples that tested positive for the presence of human papilloma virus (HPV), the virus that also causes many cases of cervical cancer. One was later shown to be a cervical cancer that had spread to the lungs.

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Researchers Light Up Lungs To Help Diagnose Disease 

Researchers at the University of Sheffield have developed innovative technology which illuminates a person´s lungs and helps clinicians identify if they are functioning correctly. The new technology could result in earlier diagnosis of emphysema and smoking related damage, as well as other lung conditions and diseases.

Lung diseases are of growing concern to the health of the nation, with people suffering from conditions as mild as asthma or as severe as lung cancer. By detecting lung damage early, doctors could help slow down or stop the conditions.

The technique developed at Sheffield involves a person inhaling small amounts of harmless hyperpolarised (HP) noble gases (Helium-3 and Xenon-129), which are then imaged inside an MRI scanner.

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Low-Level Radon Exposure May Reduce Lung Cancer Risk 

Exposure to levels of radon gas typically found in 90 percent of American homes appears to reduce the risk of developing lung cancer by as much as 60 percent, according to a study published in the March issue of the journal Health Physics.

The finding differs significantly from the results of previous case-control studies of the effects of low-level radon exposure, which have detected a slightly elevated lung cancer risk (but without statistical significance) or no risk at all.

The study, undertaken jointly by researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), Fallon Clinic, and Fallon Community Health Plan, is the first to observe a statistically significant hormetic effect of low-level radon exposure.

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Low radon levels may reduce lung cancer risk 

Radon levels typically found in homes in the United States do not raise the risk of lung cancer, according to findings of a decade-long study. In fact, at low levels, radon may actually reduce the risk.

These results represent a substantial departure from the risk model upon which regulatory policy for low-dose radon exposure is based, Dr. Richard E. Thompson, from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, and colleagues report in the journal Health Physics.

Their study included 200 patients with lung cancer and 397 similar subjects without cancer.

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To Screen or Not for Lung Cancer: Does It Make a Difference?  

The best hope for an answer to the screening puzzle lies with a large federal trial of 50,000 current and former smokers that is comparing spiral CT screening with standard chest X-rays to see which saves more lives. The National Cancer Institute needs to do everything possible to expedite the researchers' analysis of their data. The usual pokey pace of academic research seems inadequate when many thousands of lives could be at stake.

At this point, in the absence of firm evidence that CT screening is beneficial, no major medical organization recommends its widespread use. On an individual level, any heavy smoker who might want to get screened should recognize that there can be harms as well as benefits. The scans are so sensitive that they pick up lots of things not worth worrying about, yet once something is detected it is hard to resist the urge to do follow-up procedures. Any screening is best done by doctors sophisticated enough to recognize and treat only what really needs treatment.

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• Simon Gray has lung cancer but won't stop smoking 

The Last Cigarette, Simon Gray's memoir about giving up smoking - or, rather, musing about one day quitting since by page 243 his ashtray still overfloweth - ends with an arresting postscript. "I have a tumour in my lung... absolutely certainly, one way or another, I'm coming up to the last cigarette." There is a burning inevitability, of course, that a habit begun aged 7, pursued tirelessly, heroically even, through past health horrors including aneurysms and prostate cancer, peaking at 65 fags a day, would get him in the end.

Still, those of us who loved Gray's previous two volumes of The Smoking Diaries for their comic shambling and twinkling self-deprecation had hoped that he might, after all, prove the fag packet warnings wrong. At least now after radiotherapy, with more next month for a secondary tumour on his neck, Gray has finally given up trying to give up.

"I don't think I'd survive long without smoking," he says. "I think I'm an addictive personality. And that is my addiction. I don't think anything can replace smoking." Besides, he now fears that quitting itself might kill him: a film director friend attributes a recent heart attack to packing in after a lifetime. . . .

I expect him to eulogise about cigarettes, the rituals and paraphernalia. Instead Gray sees smoking as as much a weakness as a pleasure. He can understand the smoking ban, just wishes it was less authoritarian, permitted, perhaps, at certain fag-friendly restaurants. But he has controlled his own habit enough to get through dinner without sparking up on pavements. "At times I'm very grateful for cigarettes. It means one's life is run on a system of small rewards. You feel that you've earned a cigarette."

He regrets, however, that he has passed his habit down to his two children, both in their forties

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• An Inconvenient Truth  

On the eve of the national publicity week for tumor prevention and control starting on April 14, Wu Yilong, Deputy Principal of Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital, revealed an inconvenient truth to the media: children and adolescents are increasingly becoming the victims of smoking induced cancers.

Wu told Guangzhou Daily that his hospital received three young lung cancer patients of around 20 in 2007, all diagnosed with senior stage cancer. Each of them was a non-smoker, but had been subject to an environment of frequent passive smoking. "Studies exhibit that it usually takes 15 years of being exposed to the pollution of smoke to developing cancer," Wu was quoted as saying. He said children were particularly sensitive to the cancer-causing agents in cigarette smoke as their bodies are still growing. . . .

Professor Li Yan of the Tumor Surgery Department of Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University said during an interview in April that tobacco smoke out of smokers' mouth with moisture was like an aerosol, more penetrating than smoke from lit tobacco. As an aerosol it attacks all the respiratory organs, including windpipes, bronchi and lung air sacs. Children's lungs have weaker mucous membrane, which makes them more vulnerable to poisoning from secondhand smoke. . . .

A survey by Jiangsu Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention last year was conducted on 1,302 students, including 731 males and 571 females, with 949 of the students less than 18 years old. The researchers found that 21.1 percent of the respondents had tried smoking, 24 percent among male respondents and 6.3 percent among female respondents, and 6 percent has bought cigarettes in the last month. Among those who had started smoking, 24 percent had tried smoking before the age of seven.

Statistics from the Ministry of Health indicate that Chinese smokers are starting younger. Compared with 1984, the average first cigarette age of Chinese smokers in 2002 had dropped by four to five years, to 18 for males and 20 for females. . . .

The tobacco control report of the Ministry of Health for 2007 said although public knowledge on the harm caused by smoking has been steadily rising in China in recent years--with the knowledge rate rising from 24 percent in 1996 to 35 percent in 2002--much of the public still holds fallacies about smoking.

After the Tianjin Daily published an article titled Smokers Are 10 Times More Likely to Have Lung Cancer Than Non-smokers on March 31, the newspaper received calls from suspicious readers, questioning why some chain-smokers never get lung cancer while some non-smokers die from lung cancer, and why people get cancer immediately after quitting smoking.

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