Toenails Cut Predict the Risk of Lung Cancer

A study showed that the toenails cut can be used to predict the risk of lung cancer several years before it developed.

Measurements of nicotine levels in toenails cut it found the men with the highest readings three times more likely to get cancer than the lowest.

Because toenails grow so slowly – 1 cm a year – they provide important information about long-term exposure to cigarette smoke.

The findings, by scientists at the University of San Diego in California, it could pave the way for doctors to detect lung tumors.

Toenails are not only identified as most at risk smokers but also non-smokers, says the study in the American Journal of Epidemiology. This means providing guidance to the damaging effects of passive smoking.

The researchers took samples of nail cut from 850 men and followed them for more than 12 years to see who developed lung cancer.

They estimate that people with the highest nicotine levels of 3.5 times more likely to suffer from cancer 12 years later compared with those with the lowest levels.

Lung cancer kills less than 30 thousand people a year in England and Wales and smoking causes about 90 percent of cases.

It is estimated that people who smoke more than 20 cigarettes a day 20 times more likely to get it than non-smokers.

Figures released earlier this week showed levels more than doubled for women over 60 since the mid-1970s.

The disease is now attacking 190 in every 100,000 women, up from 88 per 100,000 is almost 30 years ago. Experts blame the fact that smoking peaked in women during that period.

Meanwhile, the rate of disease among men has decreased since smoking has declined in popularity in the 1970s.

Toenails grow about one centimeter a year so it can provide important clues about the long-term exposure to cigarette smoke.

Samples were taken from each volunteer at the beginning of the experiment in 1987 and analyzed the level of nicotine. The men were then followed to 12 years to see which one is suffering from lung cancer.

The results showed lung cancer victims have nicotine levels on average 12 years earlier around 0.95 nanogrammes per milligram. But they are free of cancer has only 0.25ng per milligram.

The study shows nicotine levels nails provide biomarkers that can predict the risk of lung cancer independent of smoking history were reported.
(Source: TempoInteraktif)

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