Smoking strongly associated with non-melanoma skin cancers in women: study

Published : Dec 13, 2011 - 11:03 Updated : Dec 13, 2011 - 11:28

Women who smoke are more likely to suffer from skin cancer, a study found, reported Science Daily.

According to the study, women who have smoked for 20 years or more are twice likely to suffer from the disease.

A woman smokes a cigarette in New York (Bloomberg)

Study results showed that cigarette smoking was associated with non-melanoma skin cancer overall, and that the risk increased with numbers of cigarettes per day, total years of smoking, and pack-years smoked. Associations were particularly strong for squamous cell carcinomas (SCC), with SCC being more than two times as likely in those who have smoked for 20 or more years compared to controls.

Smoking histories were assessed and compared between patients diagnosed with basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and/or SCC, and a group of controls composed of patients who were screened for skin cancers, but who were not diagnosed with and had no history of skin cancer.

Nearly 700 participants participated in the research conducted by Moffitt's Lifetime Screening and Prevention Center and the University of South Florida's Dermatology and Family Medicine Clinics. They were asked about their smoking behaviors in terms of years smoked, how many cigarettes per day they smoked, and when those who once smoked quit smoking. The results were stratified by sex.

"Among men, positive associations with smoking of equal magnitude were observed for BCC and SCC, although none of the associations were statistically significant," said Dana E. Rollison, Ph.D., study lead author and an associate member in the Moffitt Department of Cancer Epidemiology.

"However, among women, smoking was not associated with BCC, while highly statistically significant associations were observed with SCC. Women with SCC were almost four times more likely than controls to have smoked for 20 or more years."

The researchers concluded that:

•Cigarette smoking was associated with non-melanoma skin cancer, and the risk increased with increasing dose (cigarettes per day) and number of years smoked.

•Among men, smoking was modestly associated with BCC and SCC.

•Among women, smoking was strongly associated with SCC, but not BCC.

Why women smokers should be more likely than men to be diagnosed with SCC is not clear, said the researchers.

"Observations from the lung cancer literature may provide possible explanations for why smoking was a higher risk factor for SCC in women," wrote Rollison and co-authoring colleagues both at Moffitt and across USF's College of Medicine.

"Female current smokers have higher lung cancer risks than men. Women have been shown to have more active CYP enzyme activity in the lung, where CYP is responsible for metabolizing 70-80 percent of nicotine. In addition, the up-regulation of CYP by estrogen may play a role."

Also, women have been shown to have higher levels of DNA adducts and lower levels of DNA repair in the lung as compared to men, said Rollison.

<한글기사>

女흡연자, 피부암걸릴 확률 높다

흡연이 치명적인 흑색종 이외의 두 가지 피부암과 연관이 있다는 연구결과가 나왔다.

미국 모피트 암센터(Moffitt Cancer Center)의 대나 롤리슨(Dana Rollison) 박사는 흡연이 두 가지 흔한 피부암인 기저세포암과 편평세포암 위험을 증가시킬 수 있다고 밝힌 것으로 사이언스 데일리가 12일(현지시간) 보도했다.

남녀 698명을 대상으로 흡연습관과 피부암의 연관성을 분석한 결과 담배를 20년이상 피운 사람은 피우지 않은 사람에 비해 이 두 가지 피부암에 걸릴 위험이 2배 이상 높은 것으로 나타났다고 밝혔다.

특히 20년 이상 담배를 피운 여성은 편평세포암 위험이 거의 4배나 높은 것으로 나타났다. 그러나 여성의 경우 흡연과 기저세포암 사이에는 연관이 없었다.

남성은 흡연이 이 두 가지 피부암과 모두 연관성이 있었으나 강도는 통계학상 의미를 부여할 수 있을만큼 크지는 않았다.

피부암은 흑색종, 기저세포암, 편평세포암으로 구분되면 이 중 흑색종이 다른 부위로 전이가 잘 돼 치명적인 피부암으로 알려져 있다.

이 연구결과는 '암원인 통제(Cancer Causes Control)' 최신호에 실렸다.