Many people continue smoking even after a cancer diagnosis.

As hard as it is to believe the addiction to nicotine is stronger than than the will to live.

Some people just give up and some are fatalistic but the urge to smoke is overwhelming.

Researchers looked at 2,456 lung cancer patients and 3,063 colorectal patients and discovered that at time of diagnosis, 38 percent of the lung cancer patients and 15 percent of the colorectal patients were smokers.

Lung cancer patient Toni Manes continued to smoke after her diagnosis.
Five months later, despite a cancer diagnosis, 14 percent of the lung cancer patients were still lighting up (ditto for 9 percent of the colorectal patients).

Dogs are able to sniff out lung cancer in human patients with a high degree of accuracy.

The dogs could identify volatile organic compounds that are linked to the presence of cancer on people’s breath, according to the German study. Because those with lung cancer often have no symptoms and current methods used to detect the disease are unreliable, the findings are significant, the study authors explained.

In conducting the study, researchers recruited people with lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or no health problems at all. The specially trained dogs successfully identified 71 out of 100 samples with lung cancer, as well as 372 out of 400 cancer-free samples.

The dogs were also able to distinguish between lung cancer and COPD as well as tobacco smoke. The researchers concluded there must be a reliable marker for lung cancer that is different from COPD and can be detected in the presence of tobacco smoke, food odors and drugs.

Man’s best friend earns his title again.