Smoking Doubles Mortality Risk Among Colorectal Cancer Survivors

While smoking is primarily known for increasing lung cancer, it can also increase the risk of other kinds, as well. 

Despite numerous health warnings, cigarette smoking is still responsible for an estimated 480,000 deaths every year in the United states; that's about one in five deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Furthermore, smoking can increase the risk of cancer of the bladder, blood, cervix, esophagus, kidney, larynx, liver, pancreas, stomach and the colon and rectum.

Now, new findings published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology examine how colorectal cancer survivors who smoke have a twice as likely death risk as non-smoking survivors.

While existing evidence has linked smoking with higher chances of being diagnosed with colorectal cancer, the association with survival after colorectal cancer diagnosis has been unclear.

For the study, researchers identified 2,548 people newly diagnosed with invasive, non-metastatic colorectal cancer from among 184,000 adults in the American Cancer Society's Cancer Prevention Study II. Among the 2,548 colorectal cancer survivors, 1,074 died during an average of 7.5 years of follow-up time with 453 as due to colorectal cancer.

Researchers discovered that due to smoking before the diagnosis, many were more than twice as likely to die from all causes (relative risk [RR] = 2.12). 

Former smoking before diagnosis was also associated with higher all-cause morality, but not colorectal cancer-specific mortality. 

The study authors predict that smokers may have pathologically more-aggressive tumors or treatments may be less effective due to carcinogens from smoking. However, further research will be needed in order to determine if quitting smoking after a diagnosis lowers the risk of colorectal cancer-specific mortality.

More information regarding the findings can be seen here. 

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