Prostate Cancer Mortality and Smoking: Three Interesting Studies

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Cigarette smoking can increase risk of prostate cancer mortality.

It was by sheer accident that I landed up with literature connecting prostate cancer with smoking. CureTalk has been following lung cancer these last few months and I was browsing through studies relating to lung cancer and smoking that I came across this liaison. My curiosity was piqued and I delved a little further to come across quite a few studies that have explored this connection. I present here three of them that I found quite interesting and reiterates the link between prostate cancer and smoking.

http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=646754

The study titled ‘Smoking and Prostate Cancer Survival and Recurrence’ assesses the relation between cigarette smoking and cessation of smoking with overall prostate cancer-specific and cardiovascular mortality (CVD). Evidence suggests that smoking may up the risks of aggressive prostate cancer and prostate cancer mortality. The study observed an elevated risk of prostate cancer mortality, CVD mortality, total mortality, and biochemical recurrence in men who were smokers at the time of prostate cancer diagnosis. Men who had quit smoking for almost 10 years prior to diagnosis had risks of mortality due to prostate cancer and recurrence similar to those of non-smokers.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19562492

‘Smoking and aggressive prostate cancer: a review of the epidemiologic evidence.’ , this review paper published in 2009, mentions that even though tobacco is one of the leading causes of cancer mortality and morbidity, role of smoking in the incidence of prostate cancer has not been well established. However, the review of evidence indicates that smoking does have an influence in the occurrence of prostate cancer and its aggressiveness. The paper summarizes results from cohort studies and assesses relation between smoking and fatal prostate cancer risk. They find that cigarette smoking can increase risk of prostate cancer progression and is worthy of consideration in future prostate cancer research.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17221247

‘Does cigarette smoking influence the survival of patients with prostate cancer?’ published in the year 2007, the paper directly questions the association. The authors find that individuals who were smokers at the time of first diagnosis had a threefold higher risk of dying from prostate cancer. The risk may be attributed to the metabolic changes caused by cigarette smoking leading to tumor proliferation and metastasis.