Health And Science: Prostate-cancer risk skyrockets for smokers

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER ^ | Monday, July 14, 2003 | MARY VUONG

[yonif]

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/health/130669_cancer14.html

Health And Science: Prostate-cancer risk skyrockets for smokers

Puffing can lead to most life-threatening form of the disease

Monday, July 14, 2003

By MARY VUONG
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Longtime, frequent smokers significantly increase their risk of prostate cancer, Seattle researchers have found.

Middle-aged men who smoke a pack a day for 40 years increase their risk for prostate cancer by 60 percent. They're twice as likely to suffer an aggressive form of the cancer.

Even those who haven't smoked that long face, on average, a 40 percent higher risk of prostate cancer, according to the study.

The study adds weight to previous findings that link smoking to cancers of the prostate as well as the bladder, cervix, kidney, esophagus and lung. It appears today in the July issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.

"It should be another message for why men should quit smoking," said Janet Stanford, the paper's senior author and director of prostate cancer research at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

"Current smoking and high-dose exposure are associated with a high risk of prostate cancer," she said. "That risk seems to be strongest for the most aggressive, life-threatening forms of prostate cancer."

Stanford was encouraged, however, to discover that men who stopped smoking for a decade lowered their risk to the level of non-smokers.

The study recruited about 1,450 King County residents, both prostate cancer survivors and men with no history of the disease, ages 40 to 64.

Among cancers, prostate cancer kills the most men in this country after lung cancer. This year there will be about 220,900 new cases and 28,900 deaths, the American Cancer Society estimates.Several theories exist on how smoking leads to prostate cancer. It possibly alters steroid hormone levels, stimulating the growth of regular and malignant prostate cells. Another reason is that cigarettes contain cadmium, a toxin that has been linked to the cancer.

Identified risk factors for prostate cancer are advanced age, family history and being African American. Previous research also has indicated the role of poor nutrition.

The National Cancer Institute, which funded the study, recently started a "9 A Day" campaign to encourage black men to eat more fruits and vegetables.

Stanford and her colleagues, who included University of Washington researchers, collected detailed smoking and cancer histories and accounted for such lifestyle variables as diet. Previous research results are mixed, Stanford said, but recent findings from researchers at Johns Hopkins and Harvard universities also back the connection between smoking and prostate cancer.

REDUCE RISK OF PROSTATE CANCER

• Stop smoking.

• Eat more vegetables. Tomatoes contain the cancer-fighting nutrient lycopene. Members of the crucifer family, such as cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower, also lower risk.

• Limit fat to no more than 30 percent of your daily caloric intake.

Source: Janet L. Stanford, director of prostate cancer research at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

---

P-I reporter Mary Vuong can be reached at 206-448-8011 or maryvuong@seattlepi.com

© 1998-2003 Seattle Post-Intelligencer

[Tacis]

Just ask any guy in the bar who has one of those funny sounding fake voice boxes, and he'll tell you that this is bad science and is just another anti-smoking effort to get free thinkers to stop smoking.

[Support Free Republic]

There's A Better Way To Beat The Media Clymers (And You Don't Have To Skate)!
	Donate Here By Secure Server Or mail checks to FreeRepublic , LLC PO BOX 9771 FRESNO, CA 93794 or you can use PayPal at Jimrob@psnw.com
STOP BY AND BUMP THE FUNDRAISER THREAD- It is in the breaking news sidebar!

[tkathy]

Something like 70% of all impotent men are long time smokers.

[petitfour]

When does that impotent thing kick in? Hubby smokes and we already have seven children. Any linkage between prostate cancer and getting snipped?

[widowithfoursons]

Just remember that smoking is EVIL, and that all sorts of bad things will happen to you and your loved ones if you LIGHT UP. But remember that same sex marriage is good (fuggedabout AIDS/just use a condom), and killing the unborn is a constitutional right.

[Mears]

70% of impotent men are long time smokers? Where did you get this fact?

[markman46]

More Junk science

[Bogey]

Middle-aged men who smoke a pack a day for 40 years increase their risk for prostate cancer by 60 percent. They're twice as likely to suffer an aggressive form of the cancer.

---

If he started smoking in his 20's, he would then be in his 60's.
When most men get prostate cancer, smoker or non.
Too bad these people can't do math.