This recent study from a UC Davis researcher shows that tobacco control could save even more lives than previously thought.
The epidemiological analysis, published online in BMC Cancer, linked smoking to more than 70% of the cancer burden of men in Massachusetts in 2003. This is much higher than the estimate of 21% made in 2001.
The researchers used National Center for Health Statistics data to compare death rates from lung cancer to death rates from all other cancers among Massachusetts males. The assessment revealed that the two rates changed in tandem year-by-year from 1979 to 2003, with the strongest association among males aged 30-to-74 years.
Smoking is a known cause of most lung cancers, and the study authors concluded that the very close relationship over twenty five years between lung and other cancer death rates suggests a single cause for both: tobacco smoke.
