According to a study published March 14 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, even though there has been a significant decline in smoking and lung cancer mortality in the United States, more deaths could have been prevented had all smoking ceased following the 1964 Surgeon General’s Report.

Since the mid 1950’s, the number of smokers in the U.S. has steadily decreased due to increased public awareness on the health issues associated to smoking, restrictions on smoking in public places, reduced access to cigarettes, as well as increases in cigarette taxes.

However, there is currently little measurable information about how much lung cancer mortality has decreased in association with the decline in smoking.

Suresh H. Moolgavkar, M.D., Ph.D., of the Program in Biostatistics and Biomathematics at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington and colleagues set out to determine what impact reduced cigarette smoking has had on lung cancer deaths in the United States.

Based on cohort, case-control, or registry data and adjusted to overall mortality, the researchers created independent models in order to estimate how many lung cancer deaths were prevented between 1975 and 2000.

They distinguished the data by sex and birth decade (1890-1970); actual tobacco control (ATC) – the prevalence of smoking and lung cancer mortality; no tobacco control (NTC) – historical changes in smoking rates; predicted smoking rates had there been no tobacco control; and complete tobacco control (CTC), which estimates the impact of what could have occurred if all smoking had ceased in 1965.

Between 1975 and 2000, the team discovered there were 1,051,978 lung cancer deaths among women and 2,067,775 deaths among men. According to the model’s prediction, 240,000 lung cancer deaths among women were prevented by tobacco control efforts, and 550,000 deaths among men.

The researchers explain:

“The results of this article show the dramatic impact of the reduction in smoking associated with tobacco control efforts in the second half of the 20th century on lung cancer mortality during the period 1975-2000.”

According to the researchers, one limitation of the study was that the number does not reflect the effects of non-cigarette forms of tobacco use, although they believe that:

“Continued implementation of evidence-based tobacco control policies, programs, and services remain the most promising approach to reducing the burden of lung cancer.”

In an associated report, Thomas J. Glynn, Ph.D., Director of Cancer Science and Trends and International Cancer Control at the American Cancer Society, explains that “we may be dawning on a new era for tobacco control,” citing the Affordable Care Act and the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act as major components of the avoidance of lung cancer mortalities.

Glynn said:

“Tobacco taxes have been raised substantially at the federal,
state and local level.”

Millions of individuas have been protected against secondhand smoke at workplaces, public spaces, and at home as a result of smoke-free laws and regulations, not to mention new treatments developed to fight the smoking habit.

According to Glynn, the tobacco industry is aggressive in fighting the tobacco control laws, and several state governments have reduced their support for tobacco control.

Glynn, said:

“We should use all of the tools at our disposal to rein in the rogue tobacco industry, and assiduously apply all of our political, research, advocacy, public health, and clinical skills to end tobacco’s century of death, disease, and disability.”

Written by Grace Rattue