Klin Onkol 2000; 13(Speciál 2000): 5-7.
Summary: Tobacco smoking, especially cigarette smoking, is a risk behaviour. It causes 30% of malignancies in all developed countries of the world. There are 22 000 premature deaths every year in the Czech Republic caused by smoking and nearly 8 000 deaths from malignancies related to smoking. Environmental tobacco smoke unvoluntary inhalation, which are exposed all nonsmokers, could not be omitted as a cause of some malignancies as well. Almost all cigarette smokers are addicted to nicotine (ICD: F17.2). Its magnitude could be measured by the Fagerstrom Test of Nicotine Dependence. It is a duty of every medical doctor his/her pacient should be fully informed on tobacco smoking impact on health and advised to quit smoking. Advice and interest in stopping are not time consuming („4A“ method). Nicotine replacement therapy (nicotine polacrilex gum and nicotine patches), long enough, uninterrupted and well applicated, brings favourable results of longterm abstinency. These
results will be improved and enriched in the near future with an antidepressive drug bupropion.
