Some people have turned to healthier substitutes for their detrimental habits. Take for instance, smokers who have ditched traditional cigarettes for electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) in their attempt to slowly cut the dependency and the intake of nicotine.
A recent study, however, finds that it doesn’t work that way for cancer patients who smoke, eventually raising doubts as to whether e-cigarettes are truly helpful to cancer patients giving up smoking.
In the study published online in the American Cancer Society’s Cancer journal, the researchers say cancer patients smoking with the use of e-cigarettes, apart from the traditional ones, were found to be more dependent on nicotine. They were also discovered to be equally or less expected to stop smoking the traditional sticks than non-users.
Involved in the study were 1074 cancer patients who smoked. They were also enrolled in a tobacco treatment program between years 2012 and 2013 in a cancer facility.
The researchers examined an increase in the use of e-cigarette by three fold from the year 2012 to 2013. There was a 10.6 percent increase in 2012, and 38.5 percent for 2013.
On enrollment, users of electronic cigarette were found to be more dependent on nicotine as opposed to non-users. They also demonstrated “more prior quit attempts” and were more possibly to be detected with head, neck, or lung cancers.
On follow-up, the users of e-cigarettes showed the same possibility of smoking as non-users.
Jamie Ostroff, PhD, from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center located in New York, says results of their study “illustrate that e-cigarette use among tobacco-dependent cancer patients has increased within the past two years.”
Given the risks of such dependency as indicated in the study, Ostroff reminds that all oncologists should recommend patients “to quit smoking traditional combustible cigarettes, encourage use of FDA-approved cessation medications, refer patients for smoking cessation counseling, and provide education about the potential risks and lack of known benefits of long-term e-cigarette use.”
Ostroff also emphasizes that their study has a number of limitations, thus needing further evaluation and studies.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report released in September last year, the number of middle and high school students in the U.S. experimenting or recently using e-cigarettes have doubled in 2011-2012, with about 1.78 million students noted to have ever used such as of 2012.
Also in 2012, around 160,000 students admitted to using e-cigarettes and to not having tried conventional cigarettes.
Regulations are nevertheless being put in place by authorities, based on gathered reports.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration proposed very recently the first set of rules on the use of e-cigarettes.
A number of Democrats also accused manufacturers of electronic cigarettes for having targeted minors aggressively with their marketing tactics.
Health officials say the alarming increase in e-cigarette use and experimentation is a serious public health concern that affects the general wellbeing of adolescent smokers.
