Nicotine patch linked to cancer
02/12/2000
By Julie Robotham, Medical Writer
Nicotine replacement therapies such as gums and patches could cause lung
cancer, an American study has found.
The research marks the first time nicotine has been identified as a
possible carcinogen, rather than the additives used in making
cigarettes.
"Our research provides scientific evidence that nicotine products
designed for long-term use may not be safe," Professor
Stephen Hecht, of the University of Minnesota Cancer Centre, told the
magazine New Scientist.
The discovery also has implications for the treatment of other diseases,
including PARKINSDON'S, in which nicotine has been viewed as a promising
therapy.
The scientists say that under acidic conditions, nicotine could be
converted by the body into NNK, a chemical that causes
cancer of the lung. They have not shown for certain that this process
does happen in the human body but they hypothesise that it
could - for example, in the stomach.
And they say that NNK does not have to come into direct contact with the
airways to cause such tumours, because mice given
the chemical in their drinking water or by injection have also developed
cancer.
But Associate Professor Simon Chapman, from the Department of Public
Health and Community Medicine at the University of
Sydney, said the research should not dissuade people from using gums or
patches to give up smoking, because the volume of
nicotine they contained was a small fraction of that found in
cigarettes.
"Anyone who's taking nicotine replacement therapy has probably been
smoking for 10 or 20 years and they're going to be
taking patches for maybe six weeks," Professor Chapman said.
He said the findings were of theoretical interest only. "If nicotine is
promoting cancer, smokers will be getting it through the
nicotine from cigarettes - not from patches and gums," he said.
Source: Sydney Morning Herald
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Judith Richards, London, Ontario, Canada
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