NEW YORK -- Bladder cancer patients who continue to smoke after being diagnosed tend to be younger than nonsmokers diagnosed with the disease. In addition, patients with the cancer who smoke are at increased risk for faster disease recurrence than nonsmokers, report researchers.
Investigators from the United States and Canada, writing in the December
1st issue of the journal Cancer, reviewed the cases of 286 patients with
superficial bladder cancer who smoked a pack of cigarettes a day for 20 years,
and who had smoked for up to 10 years before they were diagnosed.
Patients who were still smokers at the time of diagnosis tended to be
younger than those who were ex-smokers. In addition, current smokers experienced
earlier recurrence than former smokers.
"Our study confirms... that continued smoking influences poor outcomes in
bladder cancer patients," Dr. Neil Fleshner of the Toronto Sunnybrook Regional
Cancer Center in Ontario, Canada, said in a news release. "We see that limiting
exposure to the carcinogens from smoking, even in late stages, may retard the
growth of bladder cancer cells."
But Dr. Joseph A. Smith, Jr., of Vanderbilt University Cancer Center in
Nashville, Tennessee, finds that while concluding that "stopping smoking can
improve tumor-related outcomes... is tempting," it is "not fully supported by
the data."
Writing in an accompanying editorial, Smith adds, "Nevertheless, even the
suggestion that continued smoking may promote tumor recurrence and progression
seemingly would be a powerful deterrent against continued smoking."
