Study Raises E-Cig Cancer Concerns

A study funded by the National Institutes of Health has some people concerned over the potential for electronic cigarettes to cause cancer.

The study, performed by researchers from Boston University, the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and the University of California, Los Angeles, involved exposing human lung cells modified for increased risk of cancer to both cigarette smoke and e-cigarette vapor. According to researchers, both sets of cells showed similar changes associated with the development of cancer.

The media, of course, has been picking up the story and running with it, portraying the study as a link between e-cigarettes and cancer. Those who performed the research, however, don’t seem quite as convinced.

Study leader Dr. Steven Dubinett of UCLA, for example, urged in an interview not to be too hasty to rush to a carcinogenic conclusion. The study’s findings, he said, are preliminary, and do not show a link between the use of e-cigarettes and cancer. He added that researchers do not know which components of e-cigarette vapor may have led to the changes his researchers observed.

Abstract B16: The effect of e-cigarette exposure on airway epithelial cell gene expression and transformation

Study Raises E-Cig Cancer Concerns