Tobacco control measures and cigarette taxes have saved approximately four million lung cancer deaths during the last five decades, the latest Cancer Society study revealed.
Researchers stated in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians that these strict smoking measures have resulted in a significant reduction in smoking, gaining a little more than 76 million years of extra life among Americans.
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The ACS’ senior scientific director for cancer disparity research and the lead researcher Dr. Farhad Islami said, “The substantial estimated numbers of averted lung cancer deaths and person-years of life gained highlight the remarkable effect of progress against smoking on reducing premature mortality from lung cancer."
“However, Despite these findings, lung cancer is still the leading cause of cancer death in the United States, and smoking-attributable morbidity and mortality from other cancers or diseases remain high,” Islami added.
Researchers evaluated federal health data from 1970 through 2022, projecting the expected number of cancer deaths for every year and comparing them to the actual deaths that happened.
In all, more than 2.2 million potential lung cancer deaths in men and 1.6 million in women were prevented during the last five decades.
President of ACS’s advocacy affiliate, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, Lisa Lacasse stated that the discoveries emphasise the persistence of averted deaths.
Lacasse further stressed the need for access to accessible smoking cessation services, raised tobacco taxes and other smoke-free policies.
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