Moaath K. Mustafa Ali on the Effects of Smoking for Breast Cancer Survivors

Moaath K. Mustafa Ali, Cleveland Clinic, discusses the effects of smoking on breast cancer survivorship.

In a retrospective study of patients with breast cancer, Ali found that former smokers who quit at diagnosis still had an increased risk of gastrointestinal symptoms, hair loss and depression, when compared with patients who never smoked. Patients who continued to smoke after diagnosis also experienced anhedonia, a lack of interest in things that formerly interested them, and were six times more likely to develop coronary artery disease.