My mother smokes, she had breast cancer before. Isn’t she more likely to get cancer from smoking then?
Tuesday, September 7th, 2010 at
5:07 pm
Vintage V asked:
She claims that she is trying, but she will sometimes argue that the two cancers (lung and breast) aren’t related at all, and the fact that she had breast cancer before won’t make her risks any higher than any other smoker.
She claims that she is trying, but she will sometimes argue that the two cancers (lung and breast) aren’t related at all, and the fact that she had breast cancer before won’t make her risks any higher than any other smoker.
I disagree with that but I would like to find some statistic or something that I can show her.
Tagged with: Breast Cancer • Cancer Smoking • Statistic
Filed under: Breast Cancer
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Please make sure your mom reads this. The 2 are not related huh?? Well my sister-in-law never smoked, however she developed breast cancer. She ignored the cancer at first for reason not important right now. Anyway, she had a mastectomy. 5 yrs later, she developed lung cancer. When they biopsied the tumor in her lungs, it contained breast cancer cells. Don’t tell me they are not related. All cancers are related. All cancer can go somewhere else and cause you harm. Now she never smoked, your mother smokes. That doesn’t mean she will get breast cancer again, but I can tell you for myself, I had breast cancer, was a heavy smoker, (not anymore though) and then I had a second mastectomy less than a year later. It only takes one rogue cell to break away and run somewhere else to do it’s dirty work and cause cancer elsewhere. You don’t need statistic for this. I’m giving you what my sister in law went through. She’s dead now She died at 34 from lung cancer caused by breast cancer. FACT,
Before your mom quits, she has to want to quit and all the nagging in the world won’t make her quit, If anything, it will make her angry at you for nagging. Chantix is what I was prescribed for smoking and it worked. Yet, I really felt it was time to quit and I really wanted to. I’m so happy I did. Good luck and God bless.
ADD Denise, I thought the same thing too. It was my sister-in-laws Dr who told me that. I had an argument with him telling him just what you said, and he told me “I’m an Oncologist. I don’t see MD after your name.” So I dropped it. I totally agree, but I also have to say what the Oncologist told me.
Quite often breast cancer can invade the lung as a secondary cancer but that can happen from the breast cancer not necessarily from smoking.However smoking isn’t wise in your mothers condition.My wife had breast cancer.Mastectomy,lymph glands removed,chemo and radiothereapy later she developed a cough and the cancer specialist diagnosed lung cancer from a scan.I contacted cancer back up and they were very helpful.However after a further x ray it was shown not to be lung cancer but scar tissue on the lung from the radiotherapy.She has survived for 9 years now.
Smoking is a risk factor for some types of cancer, but by no means all.
It isn’t a risk factor for breast cancer; you can verify this by checking any reputable breast cancer charity or information site.
No, breast cancer and lung cancer are not related at all, and people who have had breast cancer are not at increased risk of lung cancer.
Breast cancer can return at any time, even years after diagnosis and treatment, and one of the places breast cancer can metatasise (spread) to is the lungs. But when this happens it is still breast cancer, not lung cancer. Breast cancer cells that have been inactive in the body the whole time spread to the lungs; it is not caused, triggered or made more likely by smoking.
Without a doubt your mother is putting herself at risk of lung cancer by smoking; but the fact that she has had breast cancer does not put her at higher risk of lung cancer.
There is some evidence from a few studies that some cancer treatments MAY increase the risk of lung cancer. One study showed a possible increased risk of lung cancer between 5 and 20 years after breast cancer treatment, possibly due to smoking after having had radiotherapy to the chest:
From a medical point of view, not all cancers are related. But to understand how that works you need to understand a few things.
If there is a family history of cancer in your direct lineage, then chances of cancers being related are higher, because family history is indicative of a genetic predisposition to developing malignancies. Most often, the same type of malignancy is found in all the patients of the same family, in which case a specific mutation can be blamed. In other cases, patients from the same family present with different types of cancers, in which case several genetic factors contribute to that, many of which are found to be immunological.
However, if the person has already had cancer before, chances of developing a malignancy, the same or a different one, are considerably higher, especially in the absense of family history. Because then genetics may not be the key factor that caused the cancer. It would have to be an environmental factor, or an individual one, which in your mother’s case can very well be smoking.
Not all people respond to smoking the same way, please be aware that some people smoke up to 3 packs a day for a lifetime without developing cancer at all, while others develop cancer without smoking at all. However, family history and personal habits are a great indicator in terms of predicting future cancers. Sadly, it’s very applicable for your mother– if she’s a cancer survivor, and she smokes, chances are she’s very likely to develop another malignancy sometime in the course of 10 years. Especially if that is the sole factor you can pin-point, with the absence of family history.
Cancers are only related if you are under a constant environmental factor (e.g. heavy metal pollution, radiation pollution…etc), if you have a family history of malignancies in your direct lineage, or if you are immunocompromised. In the absence of all three, they are only related in the sense that the cause is something the patient does, if there’s more than one cancer incident.
As for what Memere said, it’s only partially true. Malignant tumors have various levels of aggression depending on the particular type of tumor, and they are also accordingly invasive of adjacent organs. Think of it as an ivy plant– it starts off with a secure grip onto the nearest object before spreading around. Having found breast cancer cells in a lung cancer patient isn’t unheard of if the patient A. has had breast cancer, and B. has actually neglected it for a while. It’s only indicative that some of the tumor cells have metastasized or invaded the lung tissue, and in both cases it could not be fully removed with the mastectomy. The development of individual cells into tumors may have been slow due to the patient undergoing treatment as well as the fact that if she neglected cancer and still survived it, then that particular malignancy wasn’t as aggressive as other types tend to be.
At any rate, please ask your mother if her parents, grand parents or even aunts/uncles have developed cancers that are not related to age. IF that is the case, it’s very likely to be the main causative factor for her breast cancer, which her smoking obviously participated to, as smoking usually does.
If she hasn’t got any relatives with cancer, then there’s a very high chance that the malignancy was percipitated by her smoking. Not solely by it, as cancers are always multifactoral conditions, but still, her smoking could have played a key role.
Also, please make sure that she is aware of the fact that once she has had cancer, her chances of developing another malignancy are considerably higher, because cancer can be an indication of a genetic mutation, an environmental factor or a personal habit (Smoking, alcohol consumption…etc), assuming she isn’t immunocompromised.
Well, even if she is immunocompromised. Actually, regardless of her lineage and physical condition, she should -not- be smoking now. Not if she values her life. Cancer survivors are always advised against smoking due to proven predisposition to developing a malignancy regardless of the original cause, to be honest.
This is the NCI’s result of studies and research, with lots of facts and results to look into. Make sure your mother looks into that, because chances are she could develop one of a wide hue of cancers, some of which have an extremely bad prognosis (With a life expectancy that can span as little as 3 months from diagnosis, in some malignancies). She’s survived cancer once, if she values her life, she shouldn’t be taking chances now.
Your mother is right the two are not related and breast cancer is not putting her at a higher risk for lung cancer. I don’t see a point in arguing the issue even if you were correct. You should be glad your mother is trying to quit – it isn’t easy and not your place to give her a hard time or medical advice she has a doctor for that,
Memere – By your own account your sister in law did not have lung cancer she had metastatic breast cancer if you are an RN you should know better and not mislead people.