Smoking & chemotherapy?!
Question:
Smoking & chemotherapy?
can someone tell me what smoking will do to you if your taking chemotherapy and radiation... or does anyone know of a website i can go to..my grandma has anal cancer and has been on chemo and radiation. and she is still smoking.. i wanna know what it will do to her if she dont stop.
Answers:
From someone who has actually been through chemo themself.. Smoking during chemo and radiation is bad, but not just because smoking causes cancer.
The biggest risk is lung infection like pnemona or bronchitus. This is because during chemo and radiation the body's immune system is much lower than the average person. The irritation the smoke is causing to the lungs wont heal properly or will be worse and turn into an infection.
I dont really know about anal cancer specifically. However, I am guessing that since she is your grandma she is probably a lil older. Chemo is worse on older people than young. It could be that she is too adicted to the nicotine to quit. Chemo is a stressful and depressing time. If she has smoked for a long period of time, chances are, she won't quit during this time period.
If she does quit now, the with drawl both physically and mentally could be worse during this time because of the other stress she is going through.
If she is interested in quitting smoking however, she should try going on wellbutrin. Chances are she is already on anti depressants anyways, most cancer patients are. Wellbutrin is the same thing as zyban, only more insurance companies will cover it as wellbutrin but not zyban.
As for not quitting when dealing with lung cancer, there is really no health benefit at all. Most times when lung cancer is caught it is too late to 'cure' it. So why put yourself through the trouble if it wont help?