How Does Smoking Lead To Cancer

Smoking is a practice in which a substance, most commonly tobacco, is burned and the smoke is tasted or inhaled. The most common method of smoking today is through cigarettes, primarily industrially manufactured but also hand-rolled from loose tobacco and rolling paper. Smoking still remains one of the leading cause of preventable death.

What Is Cancer?

Cancer refers to diseases in which abnormal cells divide out of control and are able to invade other tissues. Cancer cells can spread to other parts of the body through the blood and lymph systems.

There are more than 100 different types of cancer. Most cancers are named for the organ or type of cell in which they start — for example, lung cancer begins in the lung and laryngeal cancer begins in the larynx.

Cigarette smoking is harmful to the smoker and also nonsmokers who are exposed to the smoke. Smoking causes more than four in five cases of lung cancer. Lung cancer has one of the lowest survival rates of all cancers, and is the most common cause of cancer death in the world.

The good news is that most of these deaths are preventable, by giving up smoking in time.

There are two types of smoking

• Active smoking: Active smoking is the intentional inhalation of smoke using cigarettes and cigars.
• Passive smoking: Passive smoking is when a non-smoker breathes other people’s smoke.

Tobacco smoke contains about 70 carcinogenic (cancer causing) substances. Smoking can cause cancer and then block your body from fighting it. Poisons in cigarette smoke can weaken the body’s immune system, making it harder to kill cancer cells. When this happens, cancer cells keep growing without being stopped.

These poisons can also damage or change a cell”s DNA. DNA is the cell”s “instruction manual” that controls a cell”s normal growth and function. When DNA is damaged, a cell can begin growing out of control and create a cancer tumor.

Smoking affects the function of the immune system and may increase the risk for respiratory and other infections.

Smoking can cause cancer almost anywhere in your body which includes:

• Larynx cancer
• Oesophageal cancer
• Mouth or oral cancer
• Bladder cancer
• Kidney cancer
• Cervix cancer
• Breast cancer
• Non Hodgkin’s tumors
• Blood cancers like
• Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML)
• Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia (ALL)
• Lung cancer
• Stomach cancer
• Pancreatic cancer
• Colorectal cancer
• Liver cancer

How Can Smoking-Related Cancers Be Prevented?

Quitting smoking lowers the risks for cancers of the lung, mouth, throat, esophagus, and larynx.

Within 5 years of quitting, your chance of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, and bladder is cut in half.

Ten years after you quit smoking, your risk of dying from lung cancer drops by half.

How Is Cancer Treated?

The treatment for cancer depends on the type of cancer and the stage of the disease. Doctors may also consider the patient’s age and general health. Often, the goal of treatment is to cure the cancer.

In other cases, the goal is to control the disease or to reduce symptoms for as long as possible. The treatment plan for a person may change over time.

Most treatment plans include surgery, radiation therapy, or chemotherapy. Some plans involve hormone therapy. Other plans involve biological therapy.

Some cancers respond best to a single type of treatment. Other cancers may respond best to a combination of treatments.

For patients who get very high doses of chemotherapy or radiation therapy, a stem cell transplant, also known as a bone marrow transplant, may be recommended by their doctor.

This is because high-dose therapies destroy both cancer cells and normal blood cells. A stem cell transplant can help the body to make healthy blood cells to replace the ones lost due to the cancer treatment. It’s a complicated procedure with many side effects and risks.