Tobacco addiction augments obesity and carcinogenesis: Matter of concern for Indian patients

PURPOSE: Life-style and tobacco addiction is the major risk factors for cancer progression in all over the world. Knowledge gaps between tobacco addiction, obesity and cancer in Indian patients brought an interdisciplinary group of investigators together to discuss the present study. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We calculated the body mass index (BMI) of all the patients (N = 927) who were diagnosed with cancer for its treatment. National Institutes of Health (NIH) criteria were used to categorize the patients. All the patients of this disease could be contacted in person to find out the history of the disease. RESULTS: The frequency of addiction in urban cancer patient was found to be about 53.3% and in a rural area it was only 33.7%. Tobacco addiction was independently associated with younger age of cancer patient (odds ratio [OR] 2.242; 95% Confidence interval (CI) 1.653-3.042), obese (OR 7.433; 95% CI 3.746-14.750), overweight (OR 4.676; 95% CI 3.381-6.468) and advanced stage of cancer (OR 11.950; 95% CI 5.283-27.030). CONCLUSION: Tobacco consumption appears to be a major contributor to cancer in younger age with elevated BMI in India. Rapid changes in diet and life-style, increase in tobacco consumption appear to be strongly associated with the carcinoma in this middle-income country.