Medpedia

Numerous studies have indicated that smoking, and even second-hand smoke, can increase breast cancer risk.  This increased breast cancer risk was initially thought to be due only to the carcinogens in tobacco smoke; however, cell culture research earlier this year suggested that nicotine might also be involved in breast cancer development.

New research from this same group of breast cancer researchers further explored the possible link between nicotine and breast cancer risk by conducting additional cell culture studies and examining human breast tissue samples.  For their breast cancer cell culture studies, the investigators established two cell lines, a breast cancer cell line in which alpha-9 nicotine receptors were silenced, and a normal (non-cancer) breast cell line in which alpha-9 nicotine receptors were intentionally over-expressed.  Additionally, these researchers examined the amount of alpha-9 nicotine receptors in 276 breast cancer tumors compared to normal breast tissues.  The investigators reported that:

• Blocking (or silencing) these nicotine receptors in breast cancer cells suppressed their growth in cell culture and reduced tumor size when the cells were implanted into mice.
• Treating normal breast cancer cells in culture over a long period of time caused them to undergo a pre-cancerous transformation.
• Implanting normal breast cancer cells that were designed to over-express the alpha-9 nicotine receptors into mice caused a substantial increase in breast cancer tumor growth.
• Analysis of human breast tissues showed that about 67% of breast cancer tissue samples had nearly 8 times as many alpha-9 nicotine receptors compared to normal breast tissues.

These are important research results regarding additional effects of smoking on breast cancer risk.  While we generally think of nicotine only as the factor that causes addiction to smoking, this research continues to show that nicotine appears to promote breast cancer development by binding to receptors in breast cancer tumors, receptors that are highly over-expressed when compared to normal, healthy breast tissues.  While this new breast cancer research suggests that targeting the alpha-9 nicotine receptors might one day lead to breast cancer treatments specific to individuals who smoke, the best approach is to give up smoking, which has been linked to other health issues including lung cancer.

Diet and lifestyle choices can have a dramatic impact on our health.  To learn about diet and lifestyle changes that you can make to reduce your personal risk of breast cancer, read my FREE book Fight Now: Eat & Live Proactively Against Breast Cancer.