SMOKERS FACE THE BIGGEST RISK OF DEVELOPING LUNG CANCER, EVEN IF IT DOESN’T RESULT IN EVERY LONG-TERM SMOKER DEVELOPING THE DISEASE.
A NEW STUDY SHOWS WHY.
Researchers have identified a set of genetic markers that help even smokers live longer and protect them from deadly diseases such as cancer. “We identified a set of genetic markers that together seem to promote longevity,” said corresponding author of the
study Morgan Levine from University of California-Los Angeles.
The study identified a network of single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs
(a DNA sequence variation occurring commonly within a population) that allow
certain individuals to better withstand environmental damage (like smoking)
and mitigate damage.
There is evidence that these genes may facilitate lifespan extension by increasing cellular maintenance and repair,” Levine noted. Therefore, even though some individuals are exposed to high levels of biological stressors, like those found in cigarette smoke, their bodies may be better set up to cope with and repair the damage,” Levine pointed out.
Smoking has been shown to have drastic consequences for lifespan and disease progression, and it has been suggested that cigarette exposure may impact the risk of death and disease via its acceleration of the aging process.
The new findings suggest that longevity, rather than being entirely determined by environmental factors, may be under the regulation of complex genetic networks which influence stress resistance and genomic stability. Genomic instability also happens to be one of the hallmarks of cancer pathogenesis, and so the same genes that may promote survival among smokers may also be important for cancer prevention.
Scientists have developed a better understanding of lifelong smokers and their relationship to lung cancer.
While lung cancer’s largest risk is smoking on a regular basis, the majority of smokers don’t develop lung cancer.
Turns out, people’s genes play an important role, in particular the cells that line their lungs. Researchers spotted this benefit in the lungs of regular smokers, finding cells that are less likely to mutate with the passage of time.
A small study, published in Nature and made by researchers from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, made this discovery. Researchers have long speculated that smoking triggers people’s DNA to mutate, something that was proved in this study, which looked into the lungs of 14 non-smokers and 19 light, moderate and heavy smokers, comparing and contrasting their results.
Their findings on heavy smokers suggest that some people’s DNAS are more likely to repair itself over time, protecting them from cancers that could arise due to exposing
their lungs to harmful agents in smoke.
“Our data suggest that these individuals may have survived for so long in spite of their heavy smoking because they managed to suppress further mutation accumulation. This leveling off of mutations could stem from these people having very proficient systems for repairing DNA damage or detoxifying cigarette smoke,” said pulmonologist Simon Spivack from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
This finding could explain why 80% to 90% of lifelong smokers never develop lung cancer.
Other factors like people’s diets, physical activity, and lifestyle could have an impact on their odds of developing cancers, including that of the lungs. Aside from understanding the disease further, the study’s results could lead to better disease prevention and could help physicists spot the disease earlier on, something pivotal in the disease’s prognosis.
“This may prove to be an important step toward the prevention and early detection of lung cancer risk and away from the current herculean efforts needed to battle late-stage disease, where the majority of health expenditures and misery occur,” said Spivack.
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Why some smokers get cancer and others don’t: Scientists discover genes that ‘lower the risk of early death’. Researchers wanted to know why some smokers survive to an old age and found that long-living smokers have specific genes that promote longevity!!!
They help the body’s cells protect themselves from the damage of smoking
‘Longevity’ genes were also linked with an 11% lower incidence of cancer.
By MADLEN DAVIES FOR MAILONLINE
Every smoker is aware their habit puts them at risk of disease and early death –
yet many still live to a ripe old age.
Now, US scientists have discovered it may be down to their genes.
Smokers who live for a long time may have specific genes promoting a lengthy lifespan, their study found.
And these ‘longevity’ genes were also linked with an 11 per cent lower incidence of cancer.
Scientists say the genes help the body’s cells maintain and repair themselves, protecting the person from ageing, and environmental damage like smoking. Tobacco kills up to half of its users, figures from the World Health Organization show. It says the tobacco epidemic is ‘one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced’, killing around 6 million people a year.
According to the American Cancer Society, tobacco use accounts for at least 30 percent of all cancer deaths, causing 87 percent of lung cancer deaths in men, and 70 percent of lung cancer deaths in women.
And a body of previous research has suggested that smoking accelerates the aging process and causes disease and an early death.
But not all smokers die early, and a small proportion survive to old age, researchers noted.
To investigate why, they studied smokers who lived for a long time.
They identified these people as having a variant of a gene that allowed them to better withstand environmental damage, like the chemicals from cigarettes.
This gene was strongly linked with a high survival rate.
The study’s author, Morgan Levine, of UCLA, said: ‘We identified a set of genetic markers that together seem to promote longevity. ‘What’s more, many of these markers are in pathways that were discovered to be important for aging and lifespan.’
They may extend a person’s lifespan by helping their cells repair themselves, she added.
The same ‘longevity’ genes might also be important to prevent cancer, researchers said. The study found they were associated with nearly an 11 per cent lower incidence of the disease.
Ms. Levine continued: ‘Therefore, even though some individuals are exposed to high levels of biological stressors, like those found in cigarette smoke, their bodies may be better set up to cope with and repair the damage.’
And the same genes might also be important to prevent cancer, the researchers said.
The study found they were associated with a nearly 11 per cent lower incidence of the disease. The research was published in The Journals of Gerontology, Series A:
Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences.
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Britain’s oldest smoker died aged 102.
The oldest smoker in Britain died aged 102, after puffing her way through 170,000 cigarettes. Winnie Langley took up the habit only days after World War I broke out in
June 1914 when she was just seven years old.
Winnie Langley RIP – dead because of credit issues
No matter how you spin the story, the article makes it quite clear that Winnie had succumbed because she quit smoking. Only, if you believe the lede, A pensioner, Winnie Langley, who smoked for more than 95 years and only gave up because she could no longer see the end of a match, has died a month short of her 103rd birthday.
Winnie quit because of her poor eyesight. Winnie Langley had already cut down from her five-a-day habit to just one cigarette last year because of the credit crunch. Yeah… and of course, the British health authorities didn’t see it fitting to provide Winnie in her hour of need with the measly five ciggies per day.
Winnie had a good run:
Throughout her life it is thought the defiant OAP, who outlived her husband, son and all of her 10 stepchildren. She even celebrated her 100th birthday by lighting up her 170,000th cigarette from a candle on her birthday cake.
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