[Click! Health] Cancer Survivors Must Quit Smoking... Increased Risk of Cardiovascular Disease

A study has found that smoking increases the risk of cardiovascular disease in cancer survivors.

Professors Kim Hyun-chang and Lee Ho-gyu, and researcher Lee Hyuk-hee from the Department of Preventive Medicine at Yonsei University College of Medicine announced on the 22nd that smoking after a cancer diagnosis increases the risk of cardiovascular disease by about 51% compared to non-smokers. Quitting smoking reduces the risk by about 36% compared to those who continue to smoke. The study results were published in the latest issue of the European Heart Journal.

Smoking is known to influence the occurrence of cardiovascular diseases such as cancer, myocardial infarction, and stroke. Especially in cancer survivors whose immunity is weakened after completing cancer treatment, the harmful effects of smoking are expected to be very significant. Until now, the exact impact of smoking on the risk of cardiovascular disease in cancer survivors had not been clearly identified.

The research team compared and analyzed the incidence of cardiovascular disease according to changes in smoking habits after cancer diagnosis in cancer survivors, based on the National Health Insurance big data. The study subjects were more than 309,000 cancer survivors aged 20 or older who received national health screenings before and after being diagnosed with cancer between 2006 and 2013.

The researchers divided the subjects into four groups: 'persistent non-smokers' (251,102 people) who did not smoke before or after diagnosis; 'new and resumed smokers' (4,777 people) who did not smoke before diagnosis but started smoking afterward; 'quitters' (31,121 people) who smoked before diagnosis but quit afterward; and 'persistent smokers' (23,095 people) who smoked both before and after diagnosis. They then analyzed the risk of cardiovascular disease in each group.

As a result, the risk of cardiovascular disease in the 'new and resumed smokers' group was 51% higher than that of the 'persistent non-smokers' group. Conversely, the risk in the 'quitters' group was 36% lower than that of the 'persistent smokers' group. The research team also found that reducing the amount of smoking by more than half did not significantly lower the risk of cardiovascular disease. They emphasized that quitting smoking is essential to prevent cardiovascular disease.

Professor Kim Hyun-chang said, "Many cancer survivors continue or start smoking due to depression even after complete cancer treatment, but there has been a lack of concrete evidence to establish smoking cessation programs targeting cancer survivors. This study, which is the first to prove that smoking increases the risk of cardiovascular disease in cancer survivors, will help guide smoking cessation efforts for cancer survivors."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.