Lung cancer risk factors
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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]; Associate Editor(s)-In-Chief: Kim-Son H. Nguyen, M.D., M.P.A., Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston MA, Cafer Zorkun, M.D., Ph.D. [2]
Overview
Lung cancer is the deadliest type of cancer for both men and women. Each year, more people die of lung cancer than breast, colon, and prostate cancers combined.
Risk factors
Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer. The more cigarettes you smoke per day and the earlier you started smoking, the greater your risk of lung cancer. There is no evidence that smoking low-tar cigarettes lowers the risk. Not all cases of lung cancer are due to smoking, but the role of passive smoking is increasingly being recognized as a risk factor for lung cancer, leading to policy interventions to decrease undesired exposure of non-smokers to others' tobacco smoke. According to the American Cancer Society, an estimated 3,000 nonsmoking adults will die each year from lung cancer related to breathing secondhand smoke. However, lung cancer has occurred in people who have never smoked.
Emissions from automobiles, factories and power plants also pose potential risks.[1]
The following may also increase one's risk of lung cancer:
- High levels of air pollution
- High levels of arsenic in drinking water
- Radon gas
- Asbestos
- Family history of lung cancer
- Radiation therapy to the lungs
- Exposure to cancer-causing chemicals such as uranium, beryllium, vinyl chloride, nickel chromates, coal products, mustard gas, chloromethyl ethers, gasoline, and diesel exhaust