Tobacco use is associated with increased risk of several cancers, including lung, larynx, oesophagus, oral cavity and pharynx, bladder, pancreas, kidney, liver, stomach, bowel, cervix, leukaemia, and ovarian cancers.
Incidence of some smoking-related cancers is decreasing thanks largely to decreases in smoking prevalence; these include lung cancer (decreasing in males), oesophageal cancer (decreasing in females), and laryngeal cancer. However, unless there is further progress in reducing tobacco exposure, these decreases are expected to slow and eventually stop.
Tobacco is the single most preventable cause of death in the world. Tobacco smoking caused an estimated 101,000 deaths in the UK in 2010 - almost a fifth (18%) of all deaths from all causes. It caused an estimated 43,000 cancer deaths in the UK in 2010 - more than a quarter (27%) of all cancer deaths. Tobacco (both active smoking and environmental tobacco smoke) causes almost a fifth (19%) of all cancer cases in the UK each year.
- Parkin DM, Boyd L, Walker LC. 16. The fraction of cancer attributable to lifestyle and environmental factors in the UK in 2010. Br J Cancer 2011;105(S2):S77-S81.
- World Lung Foundation/American Cancer Society. The Tobacco Atlas. Available from: http://www.tobaccoatlas.org. Accessed April 2014.
- Peto R, Lopez A, Boreham J, et al. Mortality from smoking in developed countries 1950-2010. Available from: https://www.ctsu.ox.ac.uk/research/mega-studies/mortality-from-smoking-in-developed-countries-1950-2010. Accessed April 2014.