Today one of the leading cancers among men, across the world is prostate cancer. There are many factors which are considered as risk factors. Various researches have shown that smoking could be one of the risk factors in causing this cancer as well as in aggravating the condition in men stricken with the disease. Researches have also shown that smoking worsens the side effects of prostate cancer therapy.
 Chart of prostate cancer |
Several research findings have shown that men under age 65, smoking a pack of cigarettes a day for 40 years would face a 100 percent increased risk of developing the more aggressive forms of prostate cancer as compared to non-smokers. Also, compared to non-smokers, current smokers face a 40 percent increase in the risk of developing prostate cancer, Dr Thomas Vaughan, in the PHS Division and researchers from the University of Washington School of Medicine collaborated on the study, which was funded by the National Cancer Institute.
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“This study provides additional evidence that supports a role for smoking as a risk factor for prostate cancer and confirms recent findings that suggest smoking is an even stronger risk factor for more life-threatening forms of prostate cancer,” said Director Stanford Prostate Cancer Research Program.
Previously, research results regarding smoking and prostate cancer have been mixed, but these results, together with recent findings from investigators at Johns Hopkins University and Harvard University, provide cumulative evidence that smoking in particular high-dose and long-term exposure to cigarettes is an important risk factor for prostate cancer, Stanford, also a professor of epidemiology at the University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine, added.
“From a public-health perspective, I think we now have enough evidence to suggest that prostate cancer should be added to the long list of malignancies in which
smoking plays a role,” she said. Other smoking-related cancers include those of the lung, bladder, cervix, esophagus and kidney. The study involved more than 1,450 Seattle-area men, between the ages 40 to 64. Half had a history of prostate cancer (diagnosed between 1993 and 1996) and the other half, which did not have a history of prostate cancer, served as a comparison group. Participants completed detailed in-person interviews that assessed a variety of factors, from smoking and alcohol consumption to diet and occupational history. One of the study’s strengths is that it focused on younger men who have a lower overall incidence of prostate cancer, which may have enhanced the researchers’ ability to tease out the effects of specific risk factors. “The contribution of smoking to prostate cancer may have been easier to detect in men fewer than 65, who are at lower absolute risk of the disease, than in older men, in whom the cumulative effects of numerous risk factors may confuse the picture,” Stanford said.Strength of the study is that it assessed other lifestyle variables from prostate-cancer screening history to dietary intake factors that, if unaccounted for during data analysis, might have biased the results.
Smoking may promote prostate cancer through several mechanisms. One is that it can increase the amount of circulating androgens, which fuel the growth of normal and malignant prostate cells.
“Cigarette smoking appears to alter a man’s hormonal milieu by leaning the scale toward a hormonal environment that may be conducive to tumor growth,” Stanford said.
Another theory is related to tobacco as a source of cadmium, a heavy metal that has been linked to prostate cancer in several occupational-health studies. This known human carcinogen inhibits DNA repair, which allows cancer cells to mutate and multiply.
“Cadmium has been shown to be concentrated in the prostate, so this may be one chemical exposure from cigarette smoking that could have an adverse biological effect on the prostate,” Stanford said.
One positive finding, however, is that while the relative risk of developing prostate cancer increases with the number of years smoked this risk declines to near that of non-smokers within about 10 years of quitting, Stanford said.
“When men stop smoking, within a decade their risk of prostate cancer returns to a level that is not substantially different from non-smokers, so for most men, it’s not too late to quit. There are few environmental risk factors for prostate cancer that have been identified, but here’s one way that men can take action to reduce their risk,” she said.
Another study led by Fred Hutchinson found that men who eat just three servings a day reduce their risk of prostate cancer by 45 percent. If some of these vegetables are from the cruciferous family, such as cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower, the risk reduced even further.
This study also reveals that men who ate lower-fat diets with fat accounting for no more than 30 percent of their daily calorie intake, had half the risk of more advanced stage prostate cancer than men who consumed more fat. Cooking tomatoes with a bit of olive oil enhances the absorption of the nutrient and the red colour in tomatoes has been found able to help reduce prostate cancer risk.
Daily News - Manjari Peiris
