A new study found that nicotine can prevent lung cancer treatments from working and may explain why lung cancer is particularly deadly to smokers. The study showed that nicotine may even prevent chemotherapy drugs such as Taxol from working properly.
The results of the study were published in the journal 'Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.'
Researchers, led by Srikumar Chellappan of the University of South Florida, studied the effects of nicotine cells on lung cancer cells that had been treated with three commonly used anti-cancer drugs: gemcitabine, cisplatin and taxol.
The study found that the presence of the same amount of nicotine found in a smoker's bloodstream, protected the cancer cells and greatly reduced the effectiveness of the medications.
'Our findings are in agreement with clinical studies showing that patients who continue to smoke have worse survival profiles than those who quit before treatment,' the researchers concluded.
'They also raise the possibility that nicotine supplementation for smoking cessation might reduce the response to chemotherapeutic agents.'
Chellappan told the Associated Press that smokers undergoing chemotherapy should stop but that other sources of nicotine, such as patches or gum, could also have the same effect on chemotherapy medication.
'There are a lot of smoking cessation programs, behavioral rather than chemical based,' Chellappan said. 'That would be the best thing to quit smoking.' However, Chellappan admitted that was 'easier said than done.'
This study adds yet another reason why people should quit smoking. It may also help scientists make lung cancer treatments more effective in the future.
