We asked SCPN friends and advisors to tell us about a report/paper/findings/work on cancer screening and prevention that has been published this year and has made them stop and think. The works span a wide range of areas from very detailed scientific investigation, reviews of physical activities, and blogs of model work. We find them a complete inspiration. When only 3% of the NCRI research budget is spent on prevention and virtually nil on implementation research; these papers provide a window on some of the very good reasons why cancer screening and prevention should be a leading part of cancer control research.

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Linda Bauld is Professor of Health Policy at the University of Stirling, Director of the Institute for Social Marketing and Deputy Director of the UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies. She also holds the CRUK/BUPA Chair in Behavioural Research for Cancer Prevention, a part time secondment to Cancer Research UK.

Linda’s nominated paper of the year is: Shahab,L., et al. (2017) ‘Nicotine, Carcinogen, and Toxin Exposure in Long-Term E-Cigarette and Nicotine Replacement Therapy Users: A Cross-sectional Study’ Ann Intern Med, 166: 390–400.

Linda chose this paper because…

“This CRUK funded research is the first study comparing the relative risks of e-cigarettes with smoking and Nicotine Replacement Therapy use in participants exclusively using these products over the longer term and dual users (smoking/ecig use; smoking/NRT use). Vaping participants had been doing so for an average of 16 months.  In the UK, the proportion of adults who believe vaping is as harmful as smoking has risen year on year from 9% in 2013 to 22% in 2017. This paper adds to other existing evidence to illustrate that this is simply not the case and it has been key to informing public health information campaigns by a number of organisations including Public Health England, and Scotland’s e-cigarette consensus statement which was led by Health Scotland

Main take home messages:  Use of combustible tobacco, NRT or vaping all deliver nicotine at roughly similar levels. However, exclusive vapers or exclusive NRT users are exposed to far fewer toxins than smokers, including carcinogens. Continued smoking with either vaping or NRT use does not result in substantially reduced toxicant exposure. E-cigarettes are an important tool for cancer prevention, but only if the user stops smoking completely.”

Read the paper here: https://thescpn.org/2BMtMj5

If you experience any difficulties accessing the paper, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at scpn@cancerpreventionscotland.org.uk