Nicotine patches can increase cancer recurrence and spreading.
(Photo by Hamron via Flickr)
It seems smokers can’t catch a break. While many have used nicotine patches to wean themselves off of cigarettes and their carcinogen-laden smoke, it seems those patches are, after all, not so much safer. It has been known for some time now that nicotine can make tumor cells spread and grow faster, but recently a study published in PLoS ONE discovered just how cancer friendly nicotine patches can be. It turns out the patches increase the chances that a tumor that was removed comes back and that it spreads to other parts of your body. The study, done in mice, showed that tumor recurrence increased 59% in the patched mice vs. 19% in the non-nicotine mice. In addition, tumors spread nine times as fast in mice with nicotine patches as in those that were not administered any patches.
