Bases genéticas del hábito tabáquico

Tobacco and diabetes: clinical relevance and approach to smoking cessation in diabetic smokers

Smoking is, together with diabetes mellitus, one of the main risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Diabetic patients have unique features and characteristics, some of which are not well known, that cause smoking to aggravate the effects of diabetes and impose difficulties in the smoking cessation process, for which a specificand more intensive approach with stricter controls is required. This review details all aspects with a known influence on the interaction between smoking and diabetes, both as regards the increased risk of macrovascular and microvascular complications of diabetes and the factors with an impact on the results of smoking cessation programs. The treatment guidelines for these smokers, including the algorithms and drug treatment patterns which have proved most useful based on scientific evidence, are also discussed.

[Genetic polymorphisms and lung cancer risk: a case-control study]

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE

The smoke fume, principal factor in the development of lung cancer, causes the expression of certain cytokines, including interleukin 4, 6, 8 and 10, which may act by inhibiting apoptosis and interfere cellular repair mechanisms and angiogenesis. To determine the possible relationship between gene polymorphisms of these cytokines and lung cancer.

PATIENTS AND METHOD

To achieve this objective we designed a case-control study, which included 400 patients who had come to the consultation for rapid diagnosis of lung cancer at the Pneumology Department, University Hospital of Salamanca, and whose main criterion exclusion was the lack of active contact with smoke fume. Patients were divided into 2 groups, each consisting of 200 patients: cases (patients diagnosed with lung cancer) and controls (patients without lung cancer).

RESULTS

A percentage of 62.8 of men were former smokers at diagnosis compared with 55.5% of women, although the former still had a greater cumulative consumption. Squamous cell carcinoma predominated in diagnosis (48.9% of patients) and more than half were in advanced stages (28.5% in stage iiiB and 25.5% in stage iv). No statistical significance was observed by linking the existence of tumor to the prevalence of any of the analyzed polymorphisms.

CONCLUSIONS

Polymorphisms in the study did not modify the risk of developing lung cancer.