
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 29, 1990                   TAG: 9003290639
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A8   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: DAYTONA BEACH, FLA.                                LENGTH: Short

POLLUTED AIR LEADS TO SPREAD OF CANCER

Cancer victims who live in Los Angeles and other cities with polluted air face a higher risk that their cancer will spread, research suggests.

Tumors appear more likely to spread - at least to the lungs - when the air a person breathes is tainted with ozone and nitrogen dioxide or cigarette smoke, researchers told an American Cancer Society seminar Tuesday.

Dr. Arnis Richters, a pathologist at the University of Southern California School of Medicine, said air pollution, particularly nitrogen dioxide, seems to impair the body's ability to kill migrating cancer cells.

Although hard evidence of the role of air pollution in the spread of cancer is limited to lab animals, Richters said the findings have disturbing implications for humans.

-Cox News Service

by CNB