Tobacco.org

Evaluation of In vitro Assays for Assessing the Toxicity of Cigarette Smoke and Smokeless Tobacco  

Results: A variety of in vitro assays are available to assess tobacco smoke that address different modes of action, mostly using non–human cell models. However, smokeless tobacco products perform poorly in these assays. Although reliable as a screening tool for qualitative assessments, the available in vitro assays have been poorly validated for quantitative comparisons of different tobacco products. Assay batteries have not been developed, although they exist for nontobacco assessments. Extrapolating data from in vitro studies to human risks remains hypothetical.

Conclusions: In vitro toxicology methods are useful for screening toxicity, but better methods are needed for today's context of regulation and evaluation of health claims.

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A Rigorous and Comprehensive Validation: Common Genetic Variations and Lung Cancer  

Conclusions: None of the five candidate SNPs in lung cancer risk can be confirmed in our study. The previously reported association could be explained by disparity in tobacco smoke exposure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease history between cases and controls. Instead, we found rs4324798 to be an independent predictor in small cell lung cancer survival, warranting further elucidation of the underlying mechanisms.

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KANT: Tobacco control is most cost-effective way to prevent cancer 

Most public health programmes of the Government of India are directed towards communicable diseases such as malaria, filaria, polio, tuberculosis and leprosy etc. The occurrence of certain diseases due to lifestyle changes like diabetes, respiratory/cardiac diseases, tobacco related disease and cancer, has now been recognized, and public health programmes are also being initiated against them. But these are few and far between. Life style diseases have a peculiar "follow others" ingredient which becomes still more complicated due to ignorance, especially in families where the elders have addictions and wrong eating habits, and the youngsters are exposed to the "role model" phenomenon. In many situations elders tell children that tobacco is bad for children and the latter are confused as to how it is bad for them and good for others. This ambiguity, coupled with peer pressure proves to be disastrous for the youth.

Most important part of all this is that the diseases and death caused by these life style aberrations are preventable. . . .

Lung cancer is one fatal but preventable life-style disease. Smoking causes 90% of lung cancer.

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Lung Cancer: Large Impact, Little Funding  

During the 2010: The Year of the Lung campaign, the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) and other members of the Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS) are honoring World Cancer Day, February 4, by elevating the awareness of lung cancer in terms of prevalence and prevention, as well as the amount of funding the disease receives for research in diagnosis and management.

Lung Cancer Funding

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in men and women in the United States and throughout the world, yet it is the least funded. Lung cancer causes more deaths than the next four most common cancers combined, including breast, colon, pancreas, and prostate.(1) Furthermore, lung cancer has one of the lowest 5-year survival rates among the five leading cancer killers, second only to pancreatic cancer.(1) However, in the United States, lung cancer receives just $1,200 of federal funding per death, while breast cancer receives more than $27,000 per death, followed by $14,000 for prostate cancer and $6,500 for colon cancer.(2)

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• The tobacco-specific carcinogen NNK induces DNA methyltransferase 1 accumulation and tumor suppressor gene hypermethylation in mice and lung cancer patients 

DNMT1 overexpression strongly correlates with smoking status and poor prognosis of lung cancer patients. . . .

NNK increases DNMT1 protein expression and activity. . . .

NNK prolongs DNMT1 protein stability through AKT signaling, which is associated with the ubiquitin-proteosome system. . . .

NNK activates AKT, then inhibits GSK3β/β-transducin repeat–containing protein–mediated protein degradation, leading to DNMT1 protein accumulation. . . .

NNK treatment enhances AKT downstream proteins, promotes hnRNP-U/βTrCP translocation to the cytoplasm, and induces DNMT1 accumulation in the nucleus . . .

NNK induces DNMT1, p-AKTser473, p-GSK3βser9, cytoplasmic hnRNP-U, and cytoplasmic βTrCP protein expression level in mouse lung adenoma tissues. . . .

DNMT1 and βTrCP interaction is disrupted in lung tumor tissue of patients who smoked.

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When the smoke clears: Molecular link between tobacco carcinogen and cancer 

A team of researchers, led by Yi-Ching Wang, at National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan, Republic of China, has uncovered a potential mechanism by which the tobacco-specific carcinogen NNK promotes lung tumor formation and development.

Specifically, they suggest that NNK induces the accumulation of a protein known as DNMT1 in the nucleus and that this protein silences genes that suppress tumor formation. . . .

The research appears in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

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Lawrence Garfinkel dies at 88; statistician helped link smoking to lung cancer 

Lawrence Garfinkel, the statistician who overcame his lack of a doctoral degree and training in oncology to become one of the driving forces in demonstrating that smoking causes lung cancer, died Jan. 21 in Seattle. He was 88.

The cause of death was cardiovascular disease, according to his son Martin.

Garfinkel oversaw the training of thousands of volunteers for the American Cancer Society and helped conduct two of the largest epidemiological studies ever, enrolling more than 2.2 million men and women. Those studies, along with the British Doctors' Study, played key roles in formulating the landmark 1964 surgeon general's report on smoking and health.

"Larry Garfinkel joined the American Cancer Society as a young scientist in 1947, and for more than four decades played an instrumental role in expanding knowledge of and reducing death from smoking," said John R. Seffrin, chief executive of the society. "His remarkable achievement is an important reminder what a tremendous impact an individual can make, and inspires all of us to continue the fight against cancer." . . .

Before 1930, lung cancer was a rare disease never encountered by most physicians. But World War I had turned many American males into smokers, and the aftermath began to become apparent in the 1940s. By 1950, four separate retrospective studies had linked smoking to the disease.

In 1951, British researchers enrolled 40,000 physicians in a study that lasted more than 40 years. At the same time, the cancer society's Dr. E. Cuyler Hammond and Dr. Daniel Horn enrolled 187,783 white males in nine states in a similar study.

Garfinkel, who had joined the society as a sta

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More Than $2 Million In NIH Grants To Barrow Researchers For Nicotine Studies 

Four scientists at Barrow Neurological Institute at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center have been awarded more than $2.2 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to research the effects of nicotine and develop new tobacco-related drug therapies.

The grants will fund three separate research projects at the Phoenix-based institute in the next several years. Ronald J. Lukas, PhD and Vice President of Research at Barrow, is one of the world's leading experts on nicotine and has spent much of his research career studying its impact. Lukas' research lab, shared by Paul Whiteaker, PhD, is the main recipient of the funding. The Barrow laboratories of Jie Wu, MD, PhD, and Yongchang Chang, MD, PhD, also will receive funding from the grants.

Lukas said these Barrow-led projects also will benefit a number of other researchers around the country who will receive collaborative NIH funding of more than $5 million for their participation in the studies. . . .

The newly-funded Barrow studies range from understanding how nicotine may reduce depression, to how it creates addiction, to how nicotine addiction is related to lung cancer.

"These studies have implications for nicotine dependence, tobacco addition, lung cancer and mood disorders,"

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Tim Hart, of folk group Steeleye Span, dies aged 61 

Tim Hart, a founding member of UK folk group Steeleye Span, has died at the age of 61, it has been announced.

Hart, who left the band in 1983, died of lung cancer on Christmas Eve in La Gomera on the Canary Islands.

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EDITORIAL: Smoking cessation / It is never too late for people to stop, even when they have lung cancer ($$) 

Do we need more evidence on the harm done by smoking? Smoking is a major contributor to common diseases such as heart attack, stroke, peripheral vascular disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. In addition, most lung cancers are caused by smoking and it is also a risk factor for cancers of the breast and bowel. The blogger who wrote last year that smoking bans were illiberal and "justified by bullshit science"1 will have gained little informed support. Smoking costs life and limb; smokers are even prematurely wrinkly.2

The linked study by Parsons and colleagues (doi: 10.1136/bmj.b5569) adds more to the evidence. The meta-analysis of the effect of continued smoking after a diagnosis of mostly early stage lung cancer shows that continued smoking substantially increases the risk of death, and that a large proportion of the increased risk is the result of cancer progression rather than cardiorespiratory disease.

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Influence of smoking cessation after diagnosis of early stage lung cancer on prognosis: systematic review of observational studies with meta-analysis  

Conclusions This review provides preliminary evidence that smoking cessation after diagnosis of early stage lung cancer improves prognostic outcomes. From life table modelling, the estimated number of deaths prevented is larger than would be expected from reduction of cardiorespiratory deaths after smoking cessation, so most of the mortality gain is likely to be due to reduced cancer progression. These findings indicate that offering smoking cessation treatment to patients presenting with early stage lung cancer may be beneficial.

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Lung cancer patients who quit smoking double their survival chances 

People diagnosed with early stage lung cancer can double their chances of survival over five years if they stop smoking compared with those who continue to smoke, finds a study published online in the British Medical Journal.

This is the first review of studies to measure the effects of continued smoking after diagnosis of lung cancer and suggests that it may be worthwhile to offer smoking cessation treatment to patients with early stage lung cancer.

Worldwide, lung cancer is the most commonly diagnosed form of cancer. In the UK, it is second only to breast cancer, accounting for around 39,000 new cancer diagnoses annually.

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Study: Smokers with early lung cancer could double survival chances if they quit 

People with early lung cancer who quit smoking could double their chances of surviving, a new study says.

Until now, there has been little proof that quitting smoking after developing lung cancer makes any difference to survival.

British researchers analyzed previous data from 10 studies examining how long smokers survived after being diagnosed with lung cancer.

People with lung cancer who continued smoking had a 29 to 33 per cent chance of surviving five years. But those who kicked the habit had a 63 to 70 per cent chance of being alive after five years. The research was published Friday in the BMJ, formerly known as the British Medical Journal.

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Quitting Smoking Doubles Survival in Early Stage Lung Cancer  

Quitting smoking after a diagnosis of early stage lung cancer doubles the odds that a patient will live another five years, a new study finds.

"The results are quite dramatic. I don't think anybody would have expected such a dramatic difference. It's incredible," said Dr. Norman Edelman, chief medical officer for the American Lung Association. "The important caveat is that this is early lung cancer."

Early stage lung malignancies can have cure rates of 50 percent to 60 percent, Edelman noted. The tragedy is that very few lung cancers (perhaps 20 percent, the authors stated) are diagnosed at this early stage.

The new findings are published in the Jan. 21 online edition of BMJ.

According to an accompanying journal editorial, fewer than one-third of all patients with lung cancer are still alive just one year after diagnosis.

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• Quitting smoking helps lung cancer patients live longer 

Smokers who are diagnosed with early stage lung cancer can roughly double their chances of being alive five years later by giving up smoking, researchers say. However, many people with lung cancer are diagnosed at a later stage, and there's very little research on whether these people would benefit from quitting. . . .

Where does the study come from?

The study was published in the BMJ (British Medical Journal), which is owned by the British Medical Association. It was carried out by an organisation called the UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies, with funding from several organisations, including the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, and the National Institute for Health Research.

What does this mean for me?

In health terms, giving up smoking is almost always likely to be beneficial. However, if you've been diagnosed with lung cancer, you're likely to be facing all sorts of difficult decisions about treatment and about the future. It's entirely down to you to decide the amount of effort you're prepared to put into giving up smoking.

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