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Excerpts from: Nicotine may promote lung cancer

By Tim Friend / USA TODAY [01/02/03]
 
Nicotine, the well-known addictive component of tobacco, may also be a powerful promoter of lung cancer.
The finding, reported in today's Journal of Clinical Investigation, offers a new way of thinking about how tobacco-related cancers arise and suggests a new approach to treating and preventing lung cancer by designing drugs that block nicotine's effects.

But experts say the research might be a double-edged sword. If nicotine can promote lung cancer, questions must be asked about the long-term safety of nicotine patches, nasal sprays and gum that smokers rely upon to quit.

''If I have a choice between everyone stopping smoking and going on a patch, I would clearly prefer everyone stop and go on the patch,'' says study leader Phillip Dennis of the National Cancer Institute 's Cancer Therapeutic Branch. ''But the safety of long-term use of nicotine replacement is unknown.'' . .

But the study suggests nicotine plays a leading role by commandeering a communication system critical for maintaining healthy cells, and that nicotine exposure is setting the stage even before genetic changes occur.

Dennis' team found that nicotine inhibits the body's natural ability to destroy cells that experience genetic damage.