Squamous cell carcinoma in women linked to smoking
Women who smoke can help themselves kick the habit with the assistance of smoking cessation aides, which are among the most popular over the counter medications.
Women who smoke can help themselves kick the habit with the assistance of smoking cessation aides, which are among the most popular over the counter medications. Smoking's link to lung cancer has become common knowledge, but new research from the Moffitt Cancer Center have a new tie between cigarettes and squamous cell carcinoma in women.
A team of scientists conducted a study that included 698 people. Subjects answered various questions on their smoking habits: how many years they smoked, how many cigarettes they went through a day and, if they quit, when they gave up smoking.
Results showed a relationship between smoking and the risk for non-melanoma skin cancers, which increased with the number of cigarettes and years smoked. Among men, there was a modest association between smoking and the diseases basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and squamous cell carcinomas (SCC).
However, smoking appeared to have a strong relationship with women's risk for SCC, but not BCC. Compared to those who had no history of skin cancer, women with SCC were almost four times more likely to have smoked for 20 or more years, as published in the journal Cancer Causes Control.
The scientists speculate this risk increase in women may be related to estrogen's effects on the enzyme CYP, a link that may also influence lung cancer in women.
Further studies are needed to pinpoint why these sex-based differences in non-melanoma skin cancer exist.
|
