Smoking tobacco causes widespread changes to the body’s DNA, effectively reprogramming it, British researchers reported yesterday.
Scientists found the DNA damage caused by tobacco in swabs of cells taken from the cheeks of women.
They say this shows how smoking can contribute to risk of a range of cancers, as well as lung cancer.
The research at University College, London, UK, investigated epigenetic changes to the DNA of epithelial cells, which are found on the outside of the body.
These affect the way the DNA operates without causing mutations in genes. Scientists say it is like genetic software.
The researchers say cancer of epithelial cells is responsible for 85% of all cancer cases.
For the latest study, reported in JAMA Oncology, they examined samples from 790 women born in 1946.
The researchers found 40 times as many epigenetic changes in the cheek cells of women who smoked than they found in their blood.
Researcher Professor Martin Widschwendter said: "These are significant results for our core interest which is decoding women’s cancers. We are a big step closer now to unravelling how environmental factors cause cancer.
"These results pave the way for other studies in which easily accessible cells can be used as proxies to highlight epigenetic changes that may indicate a risk of developing cancer at a site where cells are inaccessible."
He added: "This is incredibly exciting for women’s cancers such as ovary, breast and endometrial cancer where predicting the cancer risk is a big challenge."
JAMA Oncology 14 May 2015
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