Tobacco Induced Lung Cancer - A Preventable Disease

[Email Address of the Presenter]Statement of the Problem

Use of tobacco is found to be the leading cause of disease and death which could be preventable. It can cause several types of cancers and chronic lung diseases like bronchitis and emphysema. It is also the cause of heart diseases. Lung cancer is one of the most common types of cancer that is diagnosed. Smoking is one of the primary causes of this form of cancer and it causes loss to several lives every year. According to the article “Lung cancer patients who quit smoking double their survival chances”, it has been researched that people who are diagnosed during the early stages and quit smoking soon are more likely to live a longer life compared to those who do not quit smoking (Parsons et al, 2010).

Around 443,000 people die annually due to cigarette smoking, including 49,000 deaths occurs due to indirect exposure to smoking. Lung cancer is the major cause of deaths due to cancer in both males and females. Around ninety percent of deaths occur among males and around eighty percent of lung cancer deaths among females are due to smoking (Freedman et al., 2008). Smoking is also a risk factor for other different types of cancers including throat cancer, nasal cavity cancer, mouth cancer, stomach cancer, cancer of pancreas, kidney cancer, bladder and cervix cancer and acute myeloid leukaemia. The individuals who smoke are six times more prone to suffer from myocardial infarction, as compared with the individuals who do not smoke. The risk of heart disease increase with the increase in number of cigarettes.

Significance of the Problem

In comparison with Europe or United States of America, the incidence rates and mortalities due to lung cancer is still low in the Arab countries, but they ...