Smoking ups skin cancer risk in women

Women who smoke tobacco are at a considerable higher risk of developing a form of skin cancer called squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), a new US study says.

Researchers of the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Fla. analyzed data from 698 adult people including 383 patients with basal cell carcinoma or squamous cell carcinoma, of non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC).

Their findings showed that women who had SCC were more likely to have smoked than those who were free from the disease.

In other words, women who smoked at least 20 years were twice as likely to develop squamous cell skin cancer than non-smoker counterparts, researchers wrote in the journal Cancer Causes & Control.

Although the studied men who smoked had a modest risk for the two types of non-melanoma skin cancer, the results weren't statistically significant, the study added.

“Female current smokers have higher lung cancer risks than men. Women have been shown to have more active CYP enzyme activity in the lung, where CYP is responsible for metabolizing 70-80 percent of nicotine. In addition, the up-regulation of CYP by estrogen may play a role,” Dr. Dana Rollison and colleagues wrote.

“In conclusion, cigarette smoking was associated with NMSC, with significantly increased risks associated with increasing dose (cigarettes per day), duration (number of years smoked), and pack-years smoked,” scientists said. “Cigarette smoking is more strongly associated with SCC than BCC, particularly among women.”

source: presstv

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