The Surgeon

If lung cancer and heart disease aren’t bad enough, cigarette smokers are also at higher risk for developing, among other things, pancreatic cancer. Now, researchers at the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson in Philadelphia have preliminary evidence indicating one possible reason why. Data being presented April 13, 2008 during the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research shows that they have found that nicotine in cigarettes increases the production of a protein that is known to promote cancer cell survival, invasion and spread.
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As vascular specialists, interventional radiologists see first hand the damage that smoking causes to the arteries (10 million Americans suffer from hardening of the arteries in the legs) and the accompanying leg pain that many smokers suffer. While most people are aware of the cancer risk from smoking, health experts indicate few realize the damage it causes throughout the body’s vascular system. Smoking damages the blood vessels and smokers are at risk for all vascular diseases including peripheral vascular disease (PVD), stroke, heart attack, abdominal aortic aneurysm and subsequent death. This year during the Great American Smokeout , the Society of Interventional Radiology is urging smokers to quit.