Posted on 04/13/2022 6:41:44 AM PDT by libh8er
Cigarette smoking is overwhelmingly the main cause of lung cancer, yet only a minority of smokers develop the disease. A study led by scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and published online on April 11, 2022, in Nature Genetics suggests that some smokers may have robust mechanisms that protect them from lung cancer by limiting mutations. The findings could help identify those smokers who face an increased risk for the disease and therefore warrant especially close monitoring.
“This may prove to be an important step toward the prevention and early detection of lung cancer risk and away from the current herculean efforts needed to battle late-stage disease, where the majority of health expenditures and misery occur,” said Simon Spivack, M.D., M.P.H., a co-senior author of the study, professor of medicine, of epidemiology & population health, and of genetics at Einstein, and a pulmonologist at Montefiore Health System.
Overcoming Obstacles to Study Cell Mutations
It’s long been assumed that smoking leads to lung cancer by triggering DNA mutations in normal lung cells. “But that could never be proven until our study, since there was no way to accurately quantify mutations in normal cells,” said Jan Vijg, Ph.D., a study co-senior author and professor and chair of genetics, professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences, and the Lola and Saul Kramer Chair in Molecular Genetics at Einstein (also at the Center for Single-Cell Omics, Jiaotong University School of Medicine in Shanghai, China). Dr. Vijg overcame that obstacle a few years ago by developing an improved method for sequencing the entire genomes of individual cells.
Single-cell whole-genome sequencing methods can introduce sequencing errors that are hard to distinguish from true mutations—a serious flaw when analyzing cells containing rare and random mutations. Dr. Vijg solved this problem by developing a new sequencing technique called single-cell multiple displacement amplification (SCMDA). As reported in Nature Methods in 2017, this method accounts for and reduces sequencing errors.
The Einstein researchers used SCMDA to compare the mutational landscape of normal lung epithelial cells (i.e., cells lining the lung) from two types of people: 14 never-smokers, ages 11 to 86; and 19 smokers, ages 44 to 81, who had smoked a maximum of 116 pack years. (One pack year of smoking equals 1 pack of cigarettes smoked per day for one year.) The cells were collected from patients who were undergoing bronchoscopy for diagnostic tests unrelated to cancer. “These lung cells survive for years, even decades, and thus can accumulate mutations with both age and smoking,” said Dr. Spivack. “Of all the lung’s cell types, these are among the most likely to become cancerous.”
Mutations Caused by Smoking
The researchers found that mutations (single-nucleotide variants and small insertions and deletions) accumulated in the lung cells of non-smokers as they age—and that significantly more mutations were found in the lung cells of the smokers. “This experimentally confirms that smoking increases lung cancer risk by increasing the frequency of mutations, as previously hypothesized,” said Dr. Spivack. “This is likely one reason why so few non-smokers get lung cancer, while 10% to 20% of lifelong smokers do.”
Another finding from the study: The number of cell mutations detected in lung cells increased in a straight line with the number of pack years of smoking—and, presumably, the risk for lung cancer increased as well. But interestingly, the rise in cell mutations halted after 23 pack years of exposure.
The heaviest smokers did not have the highest mutation burden,” said Dr. Spivack. “Our data suggest that these individuals may have survived for so long in spite of their heavy smoking because they managed to suppress further mutation accumulation. This leveling off of mutations could stem from these people having very proficient systems for repairing DNA damage or detoxifying cigarette smoke.”
The finding has led to a new research direction. “We now wish to develop new assays that can measure someone’s capacity for DNA repair or detoxification, which could offer a new way to assess one’s risk for lung cancer,” said Dr. Vijg.
That first sentence makes NO sense!
So smokers ARE mutants! I knew it!!!
People who get lung cancer in the US are overwhelmingly smokers.
That is a small subset of all the US people who smoke, most who do not get lung cancer.
I wonder if this research is connected to research on how smokers were somehow covid protected.
IF ... ALL lung disease is from smoking.
ALL death is the result of a heart ceasing to beat, but the CAUSE of that cessation could be one reason over another.
IF ALL lung cancer is caused by smoking, but only a few get it ... it is still a true statement
My Father in Law smoked until he was 85. He died of complications caused when he fell off his motorcycle.
You’d think he was in a biker-gang, but he was actually a (retired) CEO of a property development company.
The majority of smokers do not get lung cancer. But all smokers suffer lung function impairment.
When I was a young man in college and smoked I figured the only thing one had to worry about with smoking was lung cancer. And since I was 20 years old I wasn’t going to get lung cancer. It was great to be immortal. Too bad it didn’t last LOL
So, you agree with the premise that lung disease can NEVER be experienced by ANYONE who is a non-smoker?
My parents, and 3 older siblings all smoked. I was the only one who never smoked. Both parents and a sister died of lung cancer. That sister had stopped smoking five years before being diagnosed. My only brother stopped smoking after having a heart attack at the age of 48. He died of a massive heart attack at 51. My oldest sister was an alcoholic. She was diagnosed with early onset of dementia because of her alcoholism, and spent 30+ years housed in a psych center, and in adult-assisted living homes in her later years. Because of smoking restrictions, she eventually stopped smoking, and died at the age of 74 of a stroke. I’m 74 now, will turn 75 in August if the Lord lets me.
That first sentence makes NO sense!
To use imaginary numbers:
1000 cases of lung cancer.
900 of them are smokers.
9,000,000 smokers.
i.e. only a small number of smokers actually get lung cancer, which is why, using my “imaginary number” example, there are not 8 million cases of lung cancer.
I’ve been anti smoking for over 50 years but finally had to acknowledge about 25 years ago that though smoking can cause cancer, merely smoking is not nearly as high a risk of lung cancer as I thought. Being afraid of smoking is like being afraid to ride in a car without a seat belt. Sure, you “might” die. But statistically you almost certainly will not.
I’m no longer afraid of second hand cigarette smoke in the least. And a main reason is that I’m not a cat, which seems to be the animal it actually affects the most, by far.
My mother died of lung cancer 15 years after she quit smoking. They used to say 5 years after you quit, you are in the clear. Not so.
Your post seems to re-enforce the idea that it might be genetics.
BTW, there is a guy in my area that is constantly rolling his own cigarettes and chain smoking them as we all “shoot the bull” in his shop and carriage house (He owns a lot of restored classic cars). He’s in his early 70’s and doesn’t have cancer. However, his skin is like a wrinkled catcher’s mitt, his voice is clearly affected by all that smoking, and I have little doubt there is a reason he has little energy. I’m 68 and you’d think I was 20 years younger.
I long ago stopped seeing “lung cancer” as the only reason for avoiding smoking.
That sais, once or twice a year I’ll smoke a cigar. But I don’t inhale. So I only have to worry about mouth cancer. So I’ve got that going for me. Which is nice.🤣
Ironically, everyone in my family who quit smoking ended up getting cancer and dying early. Not necessarily lung cancer but cancers related to smoking. Those who didn’t quit lived much longer lives albeit with respiratory problems layer in life but not cancer. I still smoke and hopefully won’t get cancer from it but I guess time will tell.
IMHO*, the only way to truly quit smoking is to just quit. Cold turkey. Yes, the first one or two weeks will likely be a living hell as your body adjusts to not having nicotine. But after the initial withdrawal pangs, you should have smooth sailing. The trick is to not backslide.
*Smoked 2, 3 or 4 packs a day for 60+ years. Tried quitting numerous times by using pills, nicotine gum, even hypnosis. Finally quit for good cold turkey in Feb, 1999 along with drugs and alcohol. Have COPD, which is slowly getting worse and will probably kill me eventually. I still want a cigarette or a drink or a snort every day.
My little brother
3 packs a day
Heart ischemia
Lungs clear
He had an MRI last month he was terrified
He got lucky
Not even a few clouds or spots
I saw a program several years ago that showed how smoking, and the chemicals in cigarettes effects teeth, skin, capillaries, etc. They used twins as examples for comparison between the twins that smoked, and the others, that didn't. The visual differences were remarkable.
Even though I never smoked, I'm far from healthy. I've had health problems that no one else in my family was ever diagnosed with. I had 4 abdominal surgeries between 2010 and 2015, and I'm diabetic, which I take oral medication for. The surgery in 2015 was to have my gall bladder out. My mother's mother died on the operating table having her gall bladder removed in 1946...8 months before I was born. Even my two sons have had health issues that no one else in our family had. My oldest son had to have his appendix out when he was 12, and he was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis over 20 years ago. My youngest son had surgery back in 2019 for cancerous polyps. He was 48 at the time.
Been A Friend of Bills for 52 years, 11 months and 14 days one day at a time
Great bit of research and we expect the main finding - some people have DNA that functions in a superior fashion in repairing DNA from mutations. That finding will prove applicable to all sorts of diseases, not just cancer.
I would bet that people with greater DNA repair functions also have better immune systems and fight off viruses and bacteria on a better than average basis.
I grew up in a household of two parents that smoked all the time. My mom was a chain smoker and my dad smoked mostly cigars. Most of my siblings and I as well began smoking in our teens but quit smoking by our late thirties or forties. You’d expect chronic lung issues to be seen across most of my parents children. But there is none.
My parents also did not have any chronic lung issues, but both had lives shortened by heart disease and hypertension.
3packs a day in year 2022 has to be expensive.
I would guess the average pack of smokes is at least $10. ea.
$10 x 3 +($6. total taxes) = $36. per day.
$36 per diem x 7 weekdays = $252. per week
$252. per week x 4 mnthy = $1008. per MONTH!!!
I only smoke a little now, maybe 3 or 4 ‘sticks’ a day.
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