Nuclear Oncology

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Quit smoking to avoid cancer in the future

Two studies reveal more benefits if you quit smoking. One of them, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences’ (PNAS), presents a new statistical model to predict mortality of men and women between 2004 and 2034. With this tool, the authors conclude that when leaving the snuff, the decline in the mortality rate is faster than previously thought.

Thus, taking into account the rate at which society is quitting smoking, estimate that by 2034, men between 50 and 85 years are 22.5% more likely to live than they had in 2004. This percentage drops to 7.4% in the case of females, who are less firm in making the decision to quit smoking.

The novelty is that the model takes into account the years he has been smoking the individual when they turn 40 instead of the number of cigarettes consumed. “The time it takes to smoke, rather than the intensity of smoking is a much more effective variable to predict the risk of death from lung cancer are smokers,” says study coordinator, Samuel Preston, University of Pennsylvania , United States.

The other study, published in the journal ‘Pediatrics’, identifies a new risk of snuff affects nonsmokers. This is the ‘third hand smoke’, a term that doctors have devised a Children’s Hospital Boston MassGeneral to refer to the harmful particles that remain in clothing and carpets, which are harmful, especially for children.

Parents who smoke often open windows or calm your craving for nicotine in rooms where children are not to avoid the harmful effects of secondhand smoke, also called “secondhand smoke”. However, they are not aware that in the cushions, carpets, clothes and even hair cigars are waste, including heavy metals, carcinogenic particles and other harmful materials.

After a study, a group of researchers from the Institute of Pharmacological Research Mario Negri, Milan, found that people who ate a diet with a high glycemic index were more likely to develop pancreatic cancer than participants with a low glycemic index.

The study authors found an association between pancreatic cancer and high consumption of sugar, candy, honey and jam, while a high intake of fruit was associated with a lower risk of developing the disease.

About 32 thousand people are diagnosed with this disease in the United States, and over 60 000 in Europe each year. Although it depends on the extent of tumor at diagnosis, the prognosis is generally very poor because few patients survive more than five years after diagnosis and complete remission is considerably rare.