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| Gastric Cancer Picture |
Everyone always talks about smoking related diseases like lung cancer, COPD and hypertension. But smoking is related to tons of other diseases, like gastric cancer. The thinking is that carcinogens are ingested during the smoking process and contaminate or affect the GI tract. However, many believe that there is no relationship between the two. That gastric cancer is just "tough luck" for those who acquire it. But as usual, those people would be wrong.
A recent study from Cancer Causes and Control (CCC) tells us that current cigarette smokers actually do have an elevated hazard ratio for gastric cancer over their never smoker counterparts, in both men and women. This is also true across ethnic groups. The researchers looked at African-Americans, Japanese Americans, Latino Americans, Native Hawaiians, and caucasions. Former smokers also had a higher risk than did never smokers, but only in men. The risk was also higher in those with a larger pack year history of smoking (packs per day x years smoked).
So there you go, yet another smoking related disease uncovered. It still amazes me why someone would want to start smoking in the first place. The perceived idea behind initiation is always trumped by the later acquired disease patterns and risks.
