It’s no surprise that smoking leads to an increased risk of cancer, especially lung cancer.
However, it can be challenging to grasp just how smoking increases the risk of lung cancer.
What percentage of smokers get lung cancer?
And some people who smoke never go on to develop lung cancer.
How Many Years of Smoking Causes Lung Cancer?
That said, research has tried to quantify the risk of lung cancer in those who smoke.
Here are some considerations:
What Is the Life Expectancy of Smokers?
What Percentage of Smokers Get Lung Cancer?
A total of 9,623 lung cancer cases from 1995 to 2013 were included in the evaluation.
Not everyone who smokes will develop lung cancer.
How Does Smoking Cause Cancer?
Many chemicals in cigarettes are known to cause cancer, includingformaldehyde, arsenic, andbenzene.
These chemicals can cause cancer in two ways.
First, they can weaken your immune system, making your body less able to kill cancer cells.
It’s not just smoking that’s the problem.
It is thought that roughly 7,300 Americans die from lung cancer each year due tosecondhand smoke.
What Other Cancers Can Smoking Cause?
Are E-Cigarettes Safe?
The truth is we don’t know yet.
However, e-cigarettes contain other chemicals, and research is still determining how safe these chemicals are.
The liquid contained in e-cigarettes is inhaled into the lungs as an aerosol.
The chemicals inhaled include known carcinogenic chemicals like formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, and acrolein, among others.
Lung Cancer Screening
In the past, there were few effective lung cancer screening tests.
People had to rely on identifying theearly symptomsto spot the disease in the initial and most treatablestages.
Others may benefit from screening as well.
Summary
Smoking is a major risk factor for developing lung cancer.
That said, it is difficult to determine exactly which smokers will go on to develop lung cancer.
And smoking also increases the risk of other cancers.
Screening for lung cancer is one of the best tools to reducing the incidence of death from lung cancer.
National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Tobacco, Nicotine, and E-Cigarettes Research Report.What are the physical health consequences of tobacco use?
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Division of Cancer Prevention and Control.Lung cancer risk factors.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Lung cancer among people who never smoked.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.What are the risk factors for lung cancer?
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Smoking and Cancer.
Centers for Disease Control.Benefits of quitting smoking.
2017;14(5):491-493. doi:10.1038/nmeth.4227
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Health effects of cigarettes: cancer.
2023;32(3):337-343. doi:10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-22-0873
