SMOKING may boost the growth of existing tumours as well as triggering lung cancer. According to a controversial theory, nicotine in cigarette smoke could make lung cancers more aggressive by stimulating tumour cells to grow and divide.
The idea centres on a cell-signalling system that relies on acetylcholine, previously thought to act only as a neurotransmitter in the brain and nerves. But the latest evidence suggests that it might double up as a growth factor outside the nervous system.
Eliot Spindel’s team at the Oregon National Primate Research Center in Beaverton has been studying cells from patients with a type of lung cancer called small cell…
