Simple Test Of NNAL May Determine Smokers’ Lung Cancer Risk

Simple Test Of NNAL May Determine Smokers’ Lung Cancer Risk. Smokers with high levels of a carcinogen byproduct (NNAL) are at higher risk of developing lung cancer according to a new research and test say researchers from the University of Minnesota and American Cancer Society agrees…

Smoking is a lot like Russian roulette, you never know who will end up developing lung cancer and who won’t. But Dr. Jian-Min Yuan, along with other researchers from the University of Minnesota, say they are one step closer to determining a smoker’s risk for developing the disease.

In their research, 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. They have presented their findings to the American Association for Cancer Research conference.

Why Only Track Levels of One Carcinogen?

As Baby Boomers, we know that tobacco smoke is bad. It’s loaded with 60 different carcinogens, which cause all sorts of Baby Boomer health concerns. But, there is one carcinogen in particular that researchers have speculated for years has contributed to human lung cancer. But there were never any scientific human studies showing this relationship.

This carcinogen is known as NNK. It releases into your body when you inhale smoke. NNK quickly passes through the liver, gets metabolized and releases NNAL, a byproduct of NNK, into your bloodstream. University of Minnesota researchers were tracking the NNAL levels through urine samples.

How much do Baby Boomers have to smoke to develop high levels of NNAL?

This is a hard question, because the exact amount is a difficult to determine. A lot depends on how honest a person is about how many cigarettes he or she smokes per day. Also the type of cigarette and how deeply a Baby Boomer inhales, could affect the amount of carcinogens in the body.

Researchers say a Baby Boomer with high levels of NNAL and high levels of nicotine, which is equivalent to smoking about a pack of cigarettes a day, is 8.5 times more likely to develop lung cancer. That is compared with a smoker with lower levels.

While the researchers point out that not all Baby Boomers who have a high level of NNAL are going to develop lung cancer, it does help assign a number to a risk that was hard to distinguish before.

What Makes This Information Beneficial?

There is nothing healthy about smoking. Even if this test pegs you at low risk of developing lung cancer, it doesn’t mean that Baby Boomers won’t develop a dozen other cancers commonly cause by smoking. So quit smoking now.

If you smoke, the No. 1 thing you should do is quit smoking. But that is easier said than done. If it were easy, 23 percent of adults in the United States would not smoke daily. One benefit of knowing whether a smoking Baby Boomer is at increased risk for lung cancer is for their doctor to screen the person regularly for abnormalities, in the hopes of catching cancer early.

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

The best way not to have to take this test is not to smoke or to quit smoking.

Remember that second hand smoke is inhaled as well. So,this “Simple Test Of NNAL May Determine Smokers’ Lung Cancer Risk” for second hand smokers, as well.

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