Nicotine – Officially Associated With Breast Cancer

According to The Journal of the National Cancer Institute, nicotine, the substance that triggers people become addicted to smoking, can provoke some cancerous tumors, being for the first time introduced on the list of those substances that can cause breast cancer.

This could have a negative impact on the companies that produce gum with nicotine, nicotine patches and electronic cigars, which are promoted under the name of “healthy alternatives” to smokers, with the purpose of helping them get rid of this vice.

The usual cigars contain at least 60 substances that can cause cancer, among which carbon monoxide, Gudrun and arsenic, but so far nicotine was not enlisted here.

The Taipei Medical University researchers took and analyzed both breast cancer cells as well as healthy cells, in order to see if the nicotine is the one that triggers the process of tumor increasing at the cells level. This study has showed that healthy breast cells starting to be treated with nicotine in the lab, began to show some characteristics of the cancer.  By the reduction of the nicotine, the increasing rhythm of the tumors started decreasing.11