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New research in the UK has shown that patients with melanoma, one of the most deadly forms of skin cancer, are less likely to survive if they have also been smoking for a long time.
Conducted by researchers at the University of Leeds and funded by Cancer Research UK, this new study examined 703 melanoma patients and badessed their immune cells, based on genetic predictors of the body's immune response.
The results, published in the journal Cancer Research, showed that there is a link between smoking and the patient's chances of survival of melanoma. Overall, smokers were 40% less likely to survive their cancer within ten years of their diagnosis than people who had never smoked.
Researchers believe that smoking could directly affect how smokers manage melanoma cancer cells. However, they add that the study can not state with certainty that smoking was responsible for reduced survival.
Read also: Smoking, but smoking remains a major cause of death and illness: WHO
"The immune system is like an orchestra, with several pieces. This research suggests that smoking could disrupt the way it works together, allowing musicians to continue playing, but perhaps in a more disorganized way, "said lead author Julia Newton-Bishop.
"The result is that smokers could still develop an immune response to try to destroy melanoma, but it seems to have been less effective than non-smokers, and smokers were less likely to survive their cancer."
"Based on these findings, smoking cessation should be highly recommended for people with melanoma," she said.
Previous studies have already shown that smoking can have a negative effect on the immune system, but it is still unclear which chemicals are responsible for this effect.
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