Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer death in most countries. U.S. black men were near the highest, with an incidence rate of 90.0 per 100,000. Low rates were noted for Israel, India, and Latin American countries. The decrease is greatest among white men, but a decrease among black men and white and black women has also occurred. If trends continue, overall lung cancer mortality rates will start to decline among men in the 1990s and among women after the year 2000.
Cigarette smoking is the major cause of lung cancer.
The link was first suspected in the 1920s and 1930s, and today, after multiple case-control and cohort studies, the overwhelming evidence is documented in more than 20 reports of the U.S. Surgeon General. Smoking is currently estimated to cause 85 percent of all lung cancer deaths. Lung cancer mortality increases with increasing dose, as determined by number of cigarettes smoked daily, smoking duration, and inhalation patterns. Evidence suggests that persons exposed to ETS are subjected to a lung cancer risk equivalent to smoking 0.1 to 1.0 cigarettes per day. Increased risk of lung cancer has also been associated with the smoking of pipes and cigars, but at a lower level of risk than that for cigarettes.