Honestly no one knows... K. harry. I am sure there are stats but the accuracy is questionable. Since lichen planus can go undetected. And they don't even know what causes it.


ON ANOTHER NOTE:

I know that someone said that smoking cessation will not stop cancer in it's tracks I feel I have to address this.

Smoking after a cancer dx does several things.

Will quitting make the cancer go away...? NO... Its not going to miraculously clear up after you give up smoking - however...

Smoking is an irritant. It is full of poisons and toxins. If you have oral cancer each puff damages an already damaged area - making it worse!! supporting the environment and speeding that cancer along.

It is fact, NOT supposition that certain cancers LOVE an oxygen free environment. Smoking decreases overall oxygen intake. Instead of allowing O2 to bind to the red blood cells CO2 binds to them instead meaning your O2 lower and is unable to travel to distant locals... therefore you are supporting the tumor's growth environment.

O2 is a source of healing. Poor healing is often associated with poor tissue perfusion caused by poor blood flow (circulation),& therefore poor O2 and other fun stuff.

Radiation cooks you - literally... so you have an open wound, that will have more difficulty healing, and will be severely irritated and you are going to add smoking to the mix? bad idea.

I read a study a while back - mentioned it the other day - that people who continued to smoke through radiation had a very poor overall survival rate after 5 years... the difference was between 20-35% less. (the actual number was abysmal for smokers like 5% were still alive after 5 years)

Finally - drs are human... We know they are supposed to be impartial. However, you have a patient who is - say a young mom and no precursors for this disease... not a smoker - not a drinker. And another patient who is a smoker, and drinker and not willing to ditch those habits to survive... who you gonna work harder for? remember - surgeons have a finite number of hours in the OR - when booking patients they consider cure potential, as well as other factors. Same with rads and chemo... who you going to push to get in first? Regardless of whether we like it or not... there is a bias.

Plus smoking can kill you... my mom was a 3 pack a day smoker and died at 59 from lung cancer.

thank you all for the your support,
but why i feel that my buccal gland is swollen while my ENT Dr. said its perfectly all right. Should i go to another Dr.?

Thanks

Cheryl, my mother smoked several packs a day and never got cancer from it. I really don't think there is a single doctor that would take a young woman with few risk factors and give them preferential treatment over someone older with many risk factors. That just seems ludicrous and completely opposite of the Hippocratic Oath. Smoke for 20 years or more and your risk for cancer will not decrease for decades. The truth is, if there are lifestyle factors that are causative for cancer, continuing any of those will increase your risk of cancer. Unfortunately, there are few cancers with direct links to causative factors. If that weren't the case,there would be no cancer.

We are all different and somewhat unique. If smoking, although bad from any perspective, was always a cause of cancer, tobacco would be banned. Environmental pollutants can never be excluded either but many people living in industrialized environments still thrive without cancer while some don't.

I don't smoke and I am having significant oxygenation issues caused by radiation induced fibrosis in my left lung. Reduced blood supply is slowly rendering my marrow incapable of producing red blood. My spinal vertebrae have died off and I stopped checking after the entire cervical spine died a couple of years ago. My CO2 buildup is now in the blood. All from compromised breathing due to radiation fibrosis.

I don't think there is one magical answer and if we talk up smoking as the threat we should start adding a million other threats like environmental factors and nutrition.

There are two different kinds of lung cancer... small cell and large cell. The predominant cause of small cell is SMOKING - and as you know - you don't even have to be a smoker. You can get it by simply living with someone who smokes or working in an environment where people around you smoke all the time. This is a FACT. Will everyone who smokes get cancer? no... Cancer can be random. It can be caused by environment and lifstyle as well as genetics.

I am not arguing the merits of smoking when most of the medical world will tell you point blank it can cause a variety of cancers. Oral being one of them.

"Smoking

Tobacco smoking is by far the leading cause of small cell lung cancer. Most deaths due to small cell lung cancer are caused by smoking or exposure to secondhand smoke.

Grabbed this from one of many websites available. It's in medical texts too.

"Smoking is clearly the strongest risk factor for lung cancer, but it often interacts with other factors. Smokers exposed to other known risk factors such as radon and asbestos are at even higher risk. Not everyone who smokes gets lung cancer, so other factors like genetics probably play a role as well."

There aren't direct links to ALL cancers, however there are certain types of cancers that do have direct links. For example - usually with small cell - its rarely random - often they have been exposed to either cigarette smoke over a long term or other carcinogens listed above.

I totally disagree with you that stopping smoking won't help a cancer patient after he or she has been diagnosed.
As I stated in my previous post there are several drawbacks to smoking during treatment.

I am sorry you have issues with fibrosis, and tissue perfusion etc... however you are comparing apples to oranges in this case. Unfortunately it is the radiation that has caused your issues, (just as damaging to the body as smoking can be in some ways)

However if someone is relatively healthy and a smoker, and they give up smoking then overall there will be an improvement in circulating O2, and thus improved tissue perfusion/healing etc.. - take away the fact that you are inhaling all those toxins, and crap and the CO2 every 15 minutes and there is space left for the O2 to fill.

In your case your fibrosis is preventing proper tissue perfusion and exchange of O2 and CO2 and this causes a systemic imbalance which can cause breakdown of other tissues. It's the same process different cause.

And I'm sorry to say. Drs are human. Even the most caring drs in the world have to make difficult decisions. I used to be a nurse. I can tell you that despite it being against the Hippocratic oath what I have said is reality... it's not a guess it's not a supposition I have heard it from the mouths of drs. and know other people in the same field who have as well. It's a true. A dr. will not tell you this to your face. And some are definitely more compassionate than others however, if having to choose between treating two patients with a similar diagnosis (this is done in the ER ALL THE TIME - It's called triaging - most important to least important) lifestyle does come into play - I'm not talking someone's penchant for wearing leather or anything I am talking things they do that have direct impact on their immediate health - smoker? drinker? heavy drug user? there are biases... it's not pretty but its true. Even when considering patients for things like liver transplants... lung transplants - the medical establishment wants to know.. if you were a heavy drinker and destroyed your liver and are up for a transplant they want you clean for a certain amount of time before even considering you for it. Same with lungs. Don't tell me the bias doesn't exist it's all around us.

sorry folks.. I am not out to try and change someone's mind. If they want to smoke go ahead and do it. But really if your health is already tentative - you have cancer - a disease that can potentially KILL YOU - and YOU ARE ALREADY TERRIFIED - does it not make sense that do whatever you can to make sure you are in TOP SHAPE to get through the battle you are facing?

I'm done.

I hear you loud and clear Cheryl. Smoking is very, very, very, very bad. I agree. Smoke for 20 years and stop. 20 years later you have the same risk for small cell lung cancer but your heart will be healthy within a month. Sometimes the stress of quitting can cause more stress than the damage caused by smoking. Some people can smoke for 50 years and never have a problem. It is dependent on the person/body.

As far as doctors, if I even heard one say this, I would first punch him in his face or throat and find another one. The doctors I know are nothing like what you say except ER triage when all cases come down to life-or-death decisions first. That's completely understandable. I had to lay on the ER floor waiting for a stall for 5 hrs and was run out when a Mexican auto painter came in with a bad reaction between his meth and the pain he was huffing all day. He had no insurance either but he got my bed.

The best doctor I ever had, Gabriel, was Canadian and has returned to the motherland by the way. His delivery was above and beyond anything I had ever experienced.

Harry, if you are not satisfied that your current physician treated you correctly and thoroughly then yes, seek out another experienced ENT.

Ed,

You certainly aren't saying we shouldn't advise quitting smoking?

Nope. I would never tell you to stop advising anyone anything. You are entitled to say whatever you feel at the time.