Tag Archives: Texas A&M University

Smoking worsens cancer pain

Cancer News (short stories) December 29, 2010 Comments: 3
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Now is time to Quit

Many friends with cancer smoke, which is understandable when you are denied so many other pleasures.

But recent research can’t be ingnored, and has come up with the conclusion that smoking may be associated with greater feelings of pain by patients with a wide range of cancer types and in all stages.

Now, free nicotine patches are to be offered in Supermarkets,  on the NHS, as part of the health drive to help smokers quit.

Coupons offering smokers a week’s free trial will be part of the Quit Kits, and the scheme starts January 1st.  As an incentive, some bright spark has worked out that if you smoke a packet a day, quitting will save you £2,000 a year.

What does research say?

United Press International is latest source, and they report that Lead investigator Joseph W. Ditre of Texas A&M University in College Station also says smoking may be linked, to the extent pain interferes with a patient’s daily routine.

Ditre and colleagues surveyed 224 patients with a range of cancer diagnoses. Patients completed self-report measures of pain severity, pain-related distress, and pain-related interference as well as a demographics questionnaire.

The study, published in the journal Pain, found current smokers with cancer experienced more severe pain than those who never smoked. Current smokers also reported more interference from pain than either those who never smoked, or former smokers.

Among former smokers, the researchers found an inverse relation between pain and the number of years since quitting. This suggests, they say, that quitting smoking may reduce pain over time.

“To elucidate important relations between pain and smoking among persons with cancer and to identify prospective targets for intervention, it is necessary to build upon past findings by examining smoking status and pain reporting in greater detail, across a wider range of cancer patients, and with regard to potential benefits of quitting smoking,” Ditre says in a statement.

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