FRIDAY, April 7 (HealthDay News) -- Nicotine in cigarettes or patches may block the ability of some chemotherapy drugs to kill lung cancer cells, a finding that agrees with clinical studies showing that patients who smoke have worse survival rates, according to a study published online April 6 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Early Edition.
Srikumar Chellappan, Ph.D., and colleagues from the University of South Florida in Tampa, examined the effect of nicotine on the activity of gemcitabine, cisplatin and taxol on non-small cell lung cancer cells.
The researchers found that the apoptosis normally induced by all three drugs was blocked by one micromolar of nicotine. Further investigation showed that nicotine induced the expression of two proteins, survivin and XIAP. Blocking the production of these proteins negated the protective effects of nicotine.
"These studies suggest that exposure to nicotine might negatively impact the apoptotic potential of chemotherapeutic drugs and that survivin and XIAP play a key role in the antiapoptotic activity of nicotine," Chellappan and colleagues concluded. "Our findings are in agreement with clinical studies showing that patients who continue to smoke have worse survival profiles than those who quit before treatment; they also raise the possibility that nicotine supplementation for smoking cessation might reduce the response to chemotherapeutic agents."
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