Lung cancer reduces therapeutic success

Lung cancer: smoking significantly reduces therapeutic success

06/07/2011

Anyone who continues to smoke despite being diagnosed with lung cancer (lung cancer) significantly reduces their chances of healing and survival. This was reported by the German Society for Pneumology and Respiratory Medicine, referring to numerous scientific studies.

Many patients can not quit smoking despite lung cancer. This significantly reduces the chance of survival, as pulmonary specialists of the German Society of Pneumology and Respiratory Medicine (DGP) in Berlin explained. Patients who give up the noise at an early stage of lung cancer have much better chances of survival than smokers, according to research. Thus, those who successfully combat nicotine addiction and live abstinence can expect a relative chance of 70 percent to survive the next five years. Anyone who continues to smoke can only count on a 30 percent chance of survival, explains Prof. Dr. med. Helmut Teschler, Medical Director of the Ruhrland-Klinik at the University Hospital Essen. Therefore, the motto should be to stop consumption immediately. Researchers have also achieved similar results in other cancers. Statistical analyzes of carcinomas of the mouth, throat, throat or nose area showed a massive reduction in life expectancy. The success of therapy decreases significantly.

Oxygen content in the blood is lowered
Smoking reduces the level of oxygen in the blood. As a result, were missing in the blood called oxygen radicals, which actually convey for the effect of radiotherapy. In addition, smoking favors the growth of cancerous tumors. This also increases the likelihood that the tumor will form metastases or that an already successfully fought tumor will return. "Smoking patients report greater pain, more breathlessness and exhaustion symptoms, I know that from many years of experience at my clinic," warns the pulmonary specialist.

46,000 new cases every year
Lung cancer caused by smoking differs from the rarer variant, which also affects non-smokers. Researchers at the British Columbia Cancer Research Center in Vancouver recently found that out. Approximately 46,000 people fall ill each year in Germany to a bronchial carcinoma. In about 90 percent of the outbreak would have been prevented if those affected had not smoked. (Sb)

Also read:
Special form of lung cancer in smokers
Diagnosis smoker's lung: morbidity rate is increasing
Immediate quit smoking symptom of lung cancer?

Picture credits: Thorsten Freyer