The state Department of Public Health has started a campaign to hamper the sale of cheap, smokeless, candy-flavored tobacco products targeted at teens and young adults in Massachusetts. Is it just another example of Big Government shoving nanny state policies down the throats of Massachusetts residents? (Long live Four Loko!) Or is banning the sale of addictive products that increase the likelihood of certain cancers — and that are being marketed to young people — just a common-sense measure for the Commonwealth to propose? I have to admit my eyes rolled when I first read the news — whi ... Jump to full article >>

DELAND — For more than three decades, the tobacco industry used public relations strategies to keep people smoking, a professor of history at Stanford University testified Monday. In the first local tobacco lawsuit trial since the Florida Supreme Court opened a floodgate of individual smoker suits in 2006, Dr. Robert Proctor testified about the “history of what the tobacco industry knew and didn’t know.” Starting with explorer Christopher Columbus, whose sailors had a hard time putting down tobacco, Proctor described memos, media interviews and studies — paid for ... Jump to full article >>

Michael Douglas told Matt Lauer on the Today Show on Jan. 11 that his “tumor is gone” after a six month regimen of chemotherapy and radiation to eliminate throat cancer — in his case, a tumor at the base of his tongue. But does that make him cancer free? Douglas said he will have to be monitored closely in coming months to ensure that the tumor does not return. In addition to gaining back the 32 pounds he lost during treatment, Douglas said he plans to eat a more organic diet and spend some time relaxing. He was diagnosed with stage four throat cancer in August 2010, attributin ... Jump to full article >>

Diseased lungs, dead bodies, a man on a ventilator and mothers blowing smoke in their children’s faces are among the images that may end up on cigarette packs in the U.S. Health officials are considering the striking pictures and accompanying messages in their effort to revamp tobacco warning labels. The 36 ‘graphic health warnings,’ unveiled on Wednesday, aim to depict the negative effects of smoking, and they will be required on all cigarette packages in 2012. More prominent warnings on cigarette packages, including larger text labels, were included in a June 2009 law putti ... Jump to full article >>

A growing body of evidence suggests that the widely used diabetes drug metformin can reduce the risk of cancer, researchers said Wednesday. A study in mice exposed to tobacco carcinogens shows that the drug can reduce the development of lung tumors by more than 70%, and results from a small clinical trial in Japan suggest it can reduce rates of colorectal tumors in humans. The National Cancer Institute is now organizing a clinical trial to test the drug in people who smoke, and other trials are testing it against breast and prostate cancer. There is not yet enough evidence to recommend using t ... Jump to full article >>

Cancer is the world’s top “economic killer” as well as its likely leading cause of death, the American Cancer Society contends in a new report it will present at a global cancer conference in China this week. Cancer costs more in productivity and lost life than AIDS, malaria, the flu and other diseases that spread person-to-person, the report concludes. Chronic diseases including cancer, heart disease and diabetes account for more than 60 percent of deaths worldwide but less than 3 percent of public and private funding for global health, said Rachel Nugent of the Center for G ... Jump to full article >>

If you are one of those smoking popular cigarettes brands from America, you might be inhaling more cancer-causing chemicals, reveals a new study by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). As per the research conducted by researchers, the U.S. cigarettes brands are packed with more cancer causing agents than brands of cigarettes manufactured in other countries like Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom. 126 smokers studied For their study, researchers recruited 126 smokers from four countries. The participants were between the ages of 18 and 55, and were those who had been smoking ... Jump to full article >>

Alison Cooper, who will take over as chief executive of Imperial Tobacco next month, refused to say smoking causes cancer as the cigarette maker unveiled a recovery in first-half profits. Mrs Cooper, who succeeds Gareth Davis, chief executive for 14 years, said she was “not qualified to have a scientific debate” over the “specific arguments” on the impact smoking has on health. “The principle we operate on is that this is a risky product,” she said. However, Imperial’s results showed the resilience of demand for cigarettes all over the world, despite ... Jump to full article >>

Men who put on pounds after prostatectomy nearly double odds of recurrence, one study finds. Men treated for prostate cancer who smoke or put on excess pounds raise their odds of disease recurrence and of dying from the illness, two new studies show. The findings were presented Tuesday at the American Association for Cancer Research’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C. In the first report, a team led by Dr. Jing Ma, an associate professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, found that obesity and smoking may not be risk factors for developing prostate cancer, bu ... Jump to full article >>

People with a particular genetic trait are at much higher risk of developing lung cancer from exposure to secondhand smoke than others, even if they rarely come into contact with it, a new study finds. Researchers also found that smokers with this variant are more susceptible to lung cancer, whether they light up a lot or a little. “If you carried the inherited risk and then you smoked, it didn’t matter if you were a light smoker or a heavy smoker — you were significantly more likely to develop lung cancer,” study co-investigator Susan Pinney, an associate professor in the department ... Jump to full article >>

Packing on the pounds gets a well-deserved bad rap. Most Americans understand that excess weight contributes to heart disease and diabetes, not to mention the urge to hide behind the kids in family photos. But obesity as a risk factor for cancer? That seems to be the case. An increasing number of studies are finding that overweight and obese people are more likely to develop cancer of various kinds. At least half a dozen types of cancer are believed to be directly affected by weight. “As time goes on, we’re realizing that obesity is related to more cancers than we originally suspec ... Jump to full article >>