Toenails `show lung cancer risk`
Baku, March 10 (AZERTAC). “Toenails can show if you are likely to get lung cancer,” reported The Sun. It said that a study measuring nicotine levels in toenail clippings from both smokers and non-smokers found that people with the highest nicotine readings were over three times more likely to get cancer than those with the lowest levels.
This research compared nicotine levels in toenail samples from 210 men who developed lung cancer between 1988 and 2000, and 630 men who did not. The samples were taken in 1987, up to 13 years before cancer developed.
The results - that toenail nicotine levels roughly equated to men`s smoking habits when samples were taken and that more men with cancer were smokers - are to be expected. Men with cancer also had higher nicotine levels in their nails than those without cancer.
As an objective measure of nicotine exposure, this technique may have academic or other specialist uses. However, in the absence of genetic or physiological tests, a person`s smoking habits remain the most effective way of predicting their risk of lung cancer. The small sample of men that was analyzed means that this study cannot accurately determine how efficiently nail nicotine levels can predict smoking exposure or cancer. Studies involving a much larger sample are needed.
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