Live Life Team
Most people associate lung cancer with cigarette smoking, but there are many other types of cancers that are linked to smoking. These include oral cancer, pancreatic cancer, bladder cancer, stomach cancer, oesophageal cancer and acute myeloid leukaemia. Cigarette smoke contains thousands of chemicals, with many of them being free radicals that cause severe damage to the body.
The American Cancer Society has done studies on smoking and oral health, and reports that around 90 percent of oral cancer patients are tobacco users. The risk increases with the length of time and frequency of use. Oral cancer patients who continue to smoke when in remission face almost a 40 percent chance of redeveloping cancer.
Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest forms of cancer. If caught early enough, pancreatic cancer is treatable. Unfortunately, most patients are not diagnosed until it is too late. A couple of reasons for this are the lack of reliable tests and symptoms that are sometimes confused with other ailments.
Patients who smoke and have also undergone chemotherapy or radiation for other types of cancer are at greater risk of acute myeloid leukaemia. Abnormal cells grow inside the bone marrow and quickly replace healthy cells. This can cause a decrease in the body’s ability to fight infection.
Carcinogens in cigarette smoke are also one of the causes of bladder cancer. Smokers have a better than 50 percent chance of developing bladder cancer than non-smokers.
There is a great risk of developing one of many types of cancer associated with smoking. The best preventive step is to not start smoking, and those who do smoke should consider quitting.
