| Lung cancer is the most common cause of death | | | | increases the incidence of the disease and stopping |
| from cancer for men and women around the world. | | | | smoking, even for as little as a year, can dramatically |
| For 2009, the American Cancer Society has estimated | | | | reduce the relative risk of contracting the condition. |
| that there was almost 220,000 new cases of cancer | | | | The greater the usage of tobacco, the greater the risk |
| and just over 159,000 deaths as a result of the | | | | of contracting lung cancer and the there is a direct |
| disease. To put this in perspective, it is thought that on | | | | correlation between the total amount of tobacco |
| in fourteen people will develop cancer of the lungs in | | | | smoked and the disease,. Someone who smokes 10 |
| their lifetime. Today, in America, lung cancer deaths are | | | | cigarettes a day for 20 years has the same risk as |
| more prevalent than breast cancer fatalities amongst | | | | someone who smokes 20 cigarettes a day for 10 |
| women. | | | | years. |
| While this may sound depressing, it should be borne in | | | | More poignantly, those who smoke more than 2 packs |
| mind that people tend to control their risk factors for | | | | of cigarettes a day, one in seven will die from the |
| the disease by making lifestyle choices. It would be | | | | disease. The culprit is in the constituents of tobacco |
| surprising if any reader is not aware that smoking | | | | smoke, with more than 4,000 chemical compounds |
| dramatically increases the risk of contracting the | | | | amongst which, many are known as carcinogens, i.e. |
| disease, nor that passive smoking is linked to increased | | | | cancer causing compounds. |
| incidence of the disease amongst those who do not | | | | A common question is how long does a smoker have |
| smoke. | | | | to quit smoking before their risk levels return to those |
| Nevertheless, the incidence of the cancer of the lungs | | | | of a non-smoker? The answer seems to be that a |
| is primarily constrained to the elderly, i.e. those over the | | | | smoker needs to have ceased smoking for |
| age of 65 years. The condition is rarely found in | | | | approximately 15 years for them to have the same |
| patients under the age of 45 (less than 3%), and more | | | | low level of risk as someone who has never smoked. |
| than 70% are over 65. | | | | Passive smoking has also been linked to lung cancer |
| The incidence of lung cancer rose dramatically from | | | | and this is where a patient has been inhaling |
| the 1930's as tobacco smoking took hold and became | | | | second-hand cigarette smoke from a smoker. |
| fashionable and socially acceptable. On a global basis, it | | | | Non-smokers who live with a smoker experience an |
| can be seen that this cancer rises where anti-smoking | | | | increase in their risk profile of almost a quarter, and in |
| education is not practised, however, where countries | | | | the US annually, some 3,000 people die as a result of |
| implement smoker awareness campaigns and it | | | | second-hand smoke. |
| becomes recognized that smoking is a major factor in | | | | Smoking may be the primary cause of lung cancer |
| disposition for contracting the disease. | | | | deaths, however it is not the only cause. Exposure to |
| What Are the Causes of Lung Cancer? | | | | asbestos and radon gas are also linked with increased |
| Smoking and lung cancer are very closely related, and | | | | risk of contracting lung cancer. There is also the |
| indeed it is thought that 90% of lung cancers are | | | | genetic predisposition of patients for contracting the |
| caused because the patient smoked or is smoking. | | | | disease which plays a clear role, though how this |
| Research indicates that continuing to smoke tobacco | | | | operates in practice is not clearly understood. |