Does nicotine itself cause cancer? - 1253572

Fri, 02/08/2013 - 06:08

iza50

Posts:5

Is there any solid study indicating that nicotine in form of gum or lozenges can still cause lung cancer, influence the growth of existing tumor or cause recurrence?

I discovered that nicotine lozenges work great for me but my initial enthousiasm has been quickly killed by number of articles stating that NRT products still increase risk of cancer. It makes me feel very uneasy and disappointed. I consider doctors here the most reliable source for finding a reliable, trustworthy answer.

Thank you.

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Reply # - February 8, 2013, 09:14 AM

Reply To: Does nicotine itself cause cancer?

catdander

Posts:

I've been looking around on the site and finally I think I've come up with the answer to your question. Dr. Mark Millard, Medical Director of the Baylor Martha Foster Lung Care Center and Professor of Pulmonology at Baylor University in Dallas, TX, gave a very good discussion of smoking cessation. The first paragraph on page 3 of the transcript states that nicotine doesn't cause lung cancer or COPD. I can't paste it here but it can be found here, http://cancergrace.org/lung/files/2012/03/Dr.-Millard-Tips-and-Tools-fo…
and the podcast is here, http://cancergrace.org/lung/tag/nicotine/

Other info on the site is spread throughout the forums but there were no statements of fact, only guesses. As you know our doctors real specialties are in treatment but they did come up with very good guess and quite valid points. Here are a few.
http://cancergrace.org/forums/index.php?topic=11099.0

http://cancergrace.org/forums/index.php?topic=2572.0

http://cancergrace.org/forums/index.php?topic=1419.0

I hope this helps,
Janine
forum moderator and former smoker. Such an addictive chemical, nicotine

Reply # - February 8, 2013, 09:54 PM

Reply To: Does nicotine itself cause cancer?

Dr West

Posts: 4735

I don't have detailed information to offer on that question. To my knowledge, there isn't clear evidence that these nicotine replacements directly cause lung cancer, but I would definitely say that even if they do have a small effect, it's likely to be be far, far less than the many carcinogens in tobacco smoke.