Lung cancer is now the 2nd most common cancer in the UK with over 38,000 new cases diagnosed each year. Lung cancer that is discovered early may be cured with an operation, but because the disease is often discovered at a late stage most people with lung cancer can't be cured.

The evidence for a link between smoking and lung cancer is overwhelming and estimates are that more than 90% of all lung cancers are due to smoking.

The risk of getting lung cancer increases with the number of cigarettes smoked. So someone who smokes 20 cigarettes a day is about 20 times more likely to get lung cancer than a non-smoker, whilst someone who smokes 30 cigarettes a day is about 30 times more likely to get the disease than someone who has never smoked.

The risk is also increased by the number of years you have been smoking and this may be more important than the number of cigarettes you actually smoke. For example, smoking 20 cigarettes a day for 40 years is 8 times more dangerous than smoking 40 cigarettes a day for 20 years.

Other factors which increase the risk of lung cancer include:

• the age at which you start smoking, the younger you start the greater your risk the type of cigarette you smoke (low tar are thought to slightly reduce risk)

• whether you inhale,( inhaling increases  risk). (However the risk of other types of oral and head and neck cancers increases even if you don’t inhale)

Therefore, the evidence shows that cigarette smoking increases your chance of lung cancer and there is “no safe level”. The only way to reduce your risk significantly of developing lung cancer is to stop smoking.

The safe message just has to be stop smoking!