Smoking is a deadly gamble. You never know who will end up developing lung cancer and who won’t. Researchers in Minnesota, say they are one step closer to determining a smoker’s risk for developing the disease. In a study, they tracked the carcinogen and nicotine levels in nearly 500 smokers through a simple urine test and discovered a link between the level of a specific carcinogen and lung cancer. Their findings were presented at the American Association for Cancer Research conference.

- Why did the researchers track only the levels of one carcinogen?

We all know that tobacco smoke is bad for us. It’s loaded with 60 different carcinogens, which cause all sorts of health risks and issues. There is one carcinogen in particular that researchers have suspected for years that directly contributes to human lung cancer. Although there were never any scientific human studies proving this relationship. The carcinogen is known as NNK. NNK releases into your body when you inhale cigarette smoke. It quickly passes through the liver, is metabolized and releases NNAL, into the bloodstream. NNAL is a byproduct of NNK. The researchers were tracking the NNAL levels through urine samples.

- How much do you have to smoke to develop high levels of NNAL?


The precise amount is a difficult to determine because it depends on how honest a person is about how many cigarettes he or she smoked a day. Also the type of cigarette and how deeply a person inhales affects the amount of carcinogens in the body. Researchers say a person with high levels of NNAL and high levels of nicotine (equivalent to smoking about a pack of cigarettes a day) is 8.5 times more likely to develop lung cancer compared with a smoker with lower levels. Although researchers have said that not everyone who has a high level of NNAL is going to develop lung cancer, it does help assign a number to a risk that was hard to measure in the past.

- Smoking is bad for you no matter what

Smoking has NO health benefits. Even if the conclusions of test put you in a category of low risk for developing lung cancer, it doesn’t mean you won’t develop a dozen other cancers frequently cause by smoking. If you smoke, you should quit. Unfortunately, that is easier said than done. If it were that easy, more than 23 percent of adults in the United States would not smoke habitually. One of the benefits of knowing whether a smoker is at a higher risk for developing lung cancer, is that their doctor can screen them regularly for abnormalities. Hopefully these test will contribute to catching lung cancers early and save more lives in the process.

Lung cancer is but one aftereffects of smoking, so this type of testing is not going to fix everything. But as far as lung cancer goes, it may give people a better idea of when and how often to get screened.

About the Author -
Lisa Macfarlane is a professional health writer and editor who specializes in sexual health and health issues.