Cancer Causing Compounds Found In Tobacco Smoke
Posted on: Monday, 20 April 2009, 05:50 CDT
On Sunday, researchers announced that they have detected two substances in tobacco smoke that directly cause lung cancer.
The findings could one day lead to accurate predictions of whether a smoker will develop the disease.
According to the researchers, smokers who had high concentrations of nicotine byproduct NNAL had twice the risk of lung cancer than those with low concentrations of NNAL in their urine.
Smokers who had high levels of NNAL and nicotine byproduct cotinine had eight times the risk of lung cancer than smokers with low concentrations of these compounds.
The findings may explain why some smokers do not get lung cancer while others do, the researchers told Reuters.
"Smoking leads to lung cancer, but there are about 60 possible carcinogens in tobacco smoke, and the more accurately we can identify the culprit, the better we will become at predicting risk," said Jian-Min Yuan, who presented the findings at the American Association for Cancer Research in Denver.
Roughly 10 percent of smokers get lung cancer.
The effects of NNAL in humans has not been clear, though studies have shown that high concentrations of NNAL have been linked to higher rates of lung cancer in laboratory tests on animals.
The scientists gathered data from two Chinese studies of 50,000 smokers between the ages of 45 and 74. They then collected blood and urine samples from the group, along with asking dietary and lifestyle questions.
The group found 246 smokers who developed lung cancer, and 245 who did not during the 10-year period following the initial interview.
The researchers divided NNAL urine levels into three categories: high, medium, and low.
They found that those with medium levels of NNAL had a 43 percent higher risk of lung cancer than those with low levels of NNAL. Those with high levels had twice the risk of developing lung cancer.
Smokers with high levels of NNAL and cotinine had an 8.5-fold risk when compared with those in the low level category.
According to Yuan, testing for NNAL and cotinine in urine may become a starting point for a new way to predict lung cancer risk in smokers.
"Our goal in the next three to five years is to amass this information so that it can be used as a screening test to alert smokers to their risks," Yuan added.
Lung cancer is the top cause of death globally; killing 1.2 million people a year.
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Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports
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