Research published in JAMA Internal Medicine found cigarette smoking caused nearly 168,000 deaths due to cancer in 2011. While the majority (75 percent) of those deaths were from lung cancer, a quarter were due to other types of smoking-related cancers, including larynx, oral, urinary bladder, esophageal, kidney, and liver cancers.
The study serves as another reminder of the many ways smoking can kill a person. The JAMA article, which took its data from interviews conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reports cigarette smoking caused 80 percent of lung cancer deaths, 77 percent of larynx cancer deaths, and 50 percent of esophageal cancer deaths. The data also revealed significant differences in the death rates of certain smoking-related cancers between men and women. Men are more likely to die from kidney, liver, stomach and myeloid leukemia cancers due to smoking, while women are more likely to die from larynx and pancreatic cancers due to smoking.
The report stresses more comprehensive tobacco control and tobacco cessation are needed if the United States wants to see a decline in deaths from these types of cancer. Read more.
Have you tried to quit smoking, or do you know someone who smokes, but who you wish would quit? Leave your thoughts in the comments.