Smoking Lung Cancer

Smoking Lung Cancer

Smoking is a major risk factor and is the main cause of lung cancer. Chemicals in tobacco smoke are carcinogens. These are substances which can damage cells and lead to cancer developing. About 9 in 10 cases of lung cancer are caused by smoking.

Everyone knows smoking can cause lung cancer. But it also causes a whole array of other varieties of the disease, from pancreatic cancer to leukemia. Now, new research sheds light on just how deadly tobacco can be when smokers get cancer.

Compared with non-smokers, those who smoke between 1-14 cigarettes a day have eight times the risk of dying from lung cancer. Those who smoke 25 or more cigarettes a day have 25 times the risk. However, the risk of lung cancer depends more on the length of time a person has smoked. So, smoking one pack of cigarettes a day for 40 years is more hazardous than smoking two packs a day for 20 years.

Smoking causes more than 48% of deaths from the 12 types of cancer sometimes caused by smoking, according to new research in JAMA Internal Medicine. Smoking caused more than 80% of lungcancer deaths as well as 77% of larynx cancer deaths. Other top cancers caused by smoking include esophagus, kidney and liver cancer.

After about fifteen years from stopping smoking, that person's risk of developing lung cancer is similar to that of a non-smoker.

Researchers analyzed 2011 data from interviews conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the study. Overall, approximately 168,000 people are estimated to die of cancer due to smoking in the United States each year.

Most statistics look at the overall risk of lung cancer, combining both people who smoke and those who have never smoked. Based on United States statistics, the lifetime risk that a man will develop lung cancer is 7.62 percent, or 1 in 13 people.

The study’s researchers note that the prevalence of smoking has been on the decline in recent decades but argue that more needs to be done.

For women, lifetime risk is 6.61 percent or 1 in 15.  The lifetime risk of a man dying from lung cancer is 6.26 percent or 1 in 16, and 4.99 percent or 1 in 20 women will die from the disease.  Clearly these numbers would be higher for people who smoke and much lower for people who have never smoked.

Continued progress in reducing cancer mortality, as well as deaths from many other serious diseases, will require more comprehensive tobacco control, including targeted cessation support,” they conclude.

Studies in other countries have broken down the risk further to differentiate between never smokers, former smokers, and current smokers.