Warning for smoking childhood cancer survivors
Childhood cancer survivors should be given smoking warnings, campaigners say
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Wednesday, 30, Jul 2008 08:31
Children who survived cancer and are most at risk of developing a second cancer are more likely to smoke than other childhood cancer survivors, research has shown.
Overall a smaller proportion of childhood cancer survivors smoke than in the general population.
But a study published today in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute found that children who had been treated for Hodgkin's lymphoma, soft tissue sarcomas and Wilms' tumour were the most likely to smoke out of this proportion.
These three cancers put children at increased risk of developing further new cancers due to the particular radiotherapy regimes used to treat them.
The smoking link was uncovered after researchers at the University of Birmingham studied more than 10,000 childhood cancer survivors.
Study author Dr Clare Frobisher described the findings as "worrying".
"Although our results show that people who survived childhood cancer are less likely to smoke than the general population, it's clear that more work needs to be done to make sure they are aware of their increased risk of a second cancer and other related health problems if they smoke," she added.
"We hope further research will show us the best ways to reach out to this group, helping them to stop smoking, and to discourage them from starting to smoke in the first place."
Commenting on the study, Cancer Research UK's head of tobacco control, Elspeth Lee, said: "It's crucial that young people who've been through treatment for childhood cancer are given all the necessary information and support to discourage them from taking up smoking, and that appropriate and targeted stop smoking advice and medication is offered to those who have already started – especially those in these high risk groups.
"Children who have been through treatment for cancer are susceptible, like all other children, to taking up smoking. The tobacco industry tries to make its products attractive to young people, which is why we're calling for remaining forms of tobacco marketing, such as tobacco displays at the point of sale in stores, to be removed."