Smoking and Cancer of the Lung

Lung Cancer: Diagnosis and Prognosis

The diagnosis of cancer can be devastating. If you smoke and you develop cancer, especially a cancer with a known association with smoking, such as lung cancer or pancreatic cancer, then the diagnosis can be particularly chilling. To realise that your smoking habit has caused a disease which is likely to end your life is a hard lesson to assimilate. Sadly many of the cancers attributed to smoking have a poor prognosis. Prognosis is a means of measuring 'cure' rates for cancer and is often given as a 5 year survival rate after diagnosis. For lung cancer, and for pancreatic cancer, the 5 year survival rate is just 5%. This means that only 5 out of 100 individuals diagnosed with these cancers will be alive after 5 years. Once symptoms of the cancer become apparent it is often too late as cancer cells are prone to spread to other parts of the body.

Beneficial Effects of Quitting

Faced with a grim disease and even grimmer prognosis many smokers are simply overwhelmed. What is the point in quitting? They may feel that it is too late and that stopping smoking after their diagnosis is futile. Dealing with the stress engendered by the diagnosis may make quitting extremely difficult and there is a perception amongst smokers that cigarettes help to soothe and calm ragged nerves. However, recent research suggests that stopping smoking after a diagnosis of lung cancer has beneficial health effects that can be measured. In a recent Canadian study, 43% of smokers diagnosed with lung cancer continued to smoke throughout their treatment. The same study showed that patients who managed to quit prior to treatment showed genuine health benefits as measured by survivability. The researchers found that after 2 years 28% of the non-smokers were still alive compared to only 16% of those patents who continued to smoke. At 5 years 4% of the smokers were still alive in comparison to 9% of non-smokers. Similar positive results have also been seen in patients with head and neck cancers.

Quitting Smoking with Support

It is not clear why smokers, who choose to quit, show enhanced survival rates. However, as smoking reduces blood flow to tissues, it has been postulated that less of the chemotherapeutic drug reaches the tumour. There seems to be a real incentive for smokers to quit before commencement of treatment. Health professionals should counsel cancer patients about the real benefits of quitting. In addition, research has shown that smokers receiving structured support from suitably trained health professionals show enhanced quit rates.

Quitting Smoking for Good

Quitting smoking is never going to be easy. For some, a cancer diagnosis provides the spur and incentive to finally quit. Others wallow in despair. The fact that there are proven positive health benefits for lung cancer suffers, if only they can stop smoking, offers hope and encouragement for the 43% that continue to smoke through this dreaded diagnosis; but only if they quit.

George Davis is a professional scientist with 25 years experience as a Human Geneticist. His passion is helping smokers give up their deadly habit. If you are a smoker and are serious about quitting then visit Tips To Help Stop Smoking for no non-sense help and advice. TipsToHelpStopSmoking [http://tipstohelpstopsmoking.com/]

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