Science / Medicine : Smoking to Kill 157,000 in Year

Cigarette smoking will cause more than 157,000 cancer deaths this year, the National Cancer Institute said last week, adding that lung cancer now kills more smokers than heart disease. Based on a new study, institute researchers said smoking also plays a major role in cancers of the mouth, esophagus, pancreas, larynx, bladder and kidney.

The study said that smoking was the major risk in 91.5% of oral cancers among men and 86.7% of larynx cancers among women. “Smoking directly increases the mortality risks for at least eight major cancer sites, including a number of sites for which trends in 5-year survival are extremely poor,” said the study, reported in the current edition of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

The study said the statistical risk of dying from lung cancer has doubled in the last three decades for male cigarette smokers and increased four times for female cigarette smokers.

For the years 1987 through 1989, the study said, the number of smoking-attributed lung cancer deaths exceeded smoking-related heart disease deaths for the first time. Lung cancer deaths among smokers in 1989 was said to total 117,032, while heart disease deaths among smokers were said to be 107,038.