Prostate Cancer patients who smoke fare worse

Smoking doubles the chances that a prostate cancer patient will see his disease spread and that he will eventually die from his illness, a new study finds.
"Basically we found that people who smoke had a higher risk of their tumor coming back, of it spreading and, ultimately, even dying of prostate cancer," said study co-author Dr. Michael Zelefsky. He is vice chair of clinical research in the department of radiation oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.
"Interestingly, this applied only to current smokers who were smoking around the time they received external beam therapy," Zelefsky added, referring to the standard form of radiation treatment for prostate cancer. "Former smokers did not have the increased risk for disease spread and recurrence that current smokers did," he said.
"However, we also looked at how smoking affected treatment side effects, from the radiation treatment, which can include rectal bleeding and/or frequent and urgent urination", he noted. "We saw that both patients who smoked and former smokers seemed to have a higher risk of urinary-related side effects after therapy."