Monday, April 03, 2006

Continued Smoking Limits Chemotherapy Success

One of the most interesting things I've noticed about lung cancer patients is that many continue to smoke after their diagnosis. Many subscribe to the philosophy that they "might as well keep smoking" since they already have cancer.

But a new study, has debunked that thinking. In the linked article it is stated that continued nicotine use seriously reduced chemotherapy effectiveness. This even applies to smoking cessation products that contain nicotine.

I haven't had a chance to discuss this with our Med Oncs yet but it will be interesting to see if they use this information to attempt to convince all of their patients to cease smoking before chemotherapy begins.