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Monday, April 03, 2006Srikumar Chellappan and colleagues at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute in Tampa, Florida, tested three standard lung cancer drugs: gemcitabine, cisplatin and taxol, on several different batches, called cell lines, of cells taken from lung cancer tumors. Adding a small amount of nicotine, equivalent to what would be found in the blood of an average smoker, interfered with the drugs' action against the tumor cells, they reported in the study, which was also presented to a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research. Nicotine protected the cancer cells by increasing the activity of two genes called XIAP and survivin, Chellappan's team found. The genes stopped a process called apoptosis, a kind of cell suicide. When the two genes were suppressed, the cells died as they should have, they said. The tests were done on cancer cells in a lab, not on cancer cells in the body, but there's no reason to expect the chemical to work differently in vivo. So not only can nicotine cause cancer (by damaging the DNA of cells), but it can aid and abet cancer, too. posted by Sydney on 4/03/2006 08:31:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
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