It not only causes but also prevents cancer-fighting proteins from fighting the disease. The latest research by the Ontario Institute of Cancer Research has discovered a new cancer terror that tobacco consumption can cause.
Overall, the study shows that continuous smoking makes it difficult for the body’s anti-cancer safeguards to treat the disease. The published study in the ‘Science Advances’ has also pointed to the volatility of tobacco in your system. Assessing that tobacco essentially causes harmful changes in DNA called ‘stop-gain mutations.’ This communicates with the body and asks it to stop making certain cancer-fighting proteins before they are fully formed.
Stop-gain mutations were found in ‘tumor-suppressors’ responsible for making proteins preventing tumors from growing. Therefore, changes in this DNA can cause cancer cells to form more defiantly without much protection from the body itself.
A University at Toronto Ph.D. Nina Adler has said, “Our study showed that smoking is associated with changes to DNA that disrupt the formation of tumor suppressors.” She was the one leading the research program in Dr. Jüri Reimand’s lab at OICR. (Source)
She also mentioned that without the proper growth of the stop-gain mutation genes, abnormal cells will keep growing, leading to an easier development of cancer.
The research was carried out through 18 different types of cancer. At Dr. Jüri Reimand’s lab at OICR, Adler, Reimand, and colleagues carried out the study amongst DNA of 12,000 tumor samples.
Cells have their own defense system. However, the trouble with tobacco is it weakens the very defense system of these cells. If you have a weaker immunity system on top of that, it makes your body an easy target for cancer cells. Plus, it makes the treatment even more complex and harder.
The strong link between Lung cancer and Stop-gain mutation is a tell-tale sign that tobacco causes a lot of harm to your DNA.
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