Why does tobacco cause lung cancer

Book a free telephone appointment with our Lung Cancer Support Nurse or find out how you can help champion policy change and raise awareness and funding for life-changing research and support services. When you smoke, the cancer-causing substances in cigarettes, called carcinogens, begin to change the tissue in your lungs almost immediately.

Over time, the cells become too damaged and can eventually develop into cancerous cells. Terri, 51 QLD. To find out more, to get involved in breaking down the stigma or to access support, connect with us today.

Connect with us. Related Answers. Explore All Answers. It's really a very interesting way to try to do lung cancer research remotely, where we actually can bring the research to the patients, wherever they are around the world, and hopefully, by studying these people that don't fit, we can start to change the narrative about why lung cancer happens and how to make it happen less often.

MEGAN : Some say that the stigma associated with smoking impedes research and can compromise patient care. Can you touch on this a little bit and give us some advice to lung cancer patients who are facing the stigma? It dramatically changes their understanding of their life and their health, but then the stigma makes them not talk about it, maybe not look for treatment options, and maybe makes them less able to tap into the optimism that we have about treating this disease.

There are amazing advances. There are pill therapies. There are immune therapies. There are so many clinical trials. In fact, we've made more headway with lung cancer than perhaps any other cancer in the past years. That's really exciting for me. I think there's so much happening that I want patients to be able to tap into that optimism, and I worry that the headwind of that stigma is that feeling of "This is something maybe I can't talk about, and maybe I won't get a good chance," because maybe there's some guilt involved in this.

We need to stop that. The fact is that lung cancer, even when smoking goes away, was going to remain a really big health problem, and it's a health problem we're making headway on, hopefully, through the kind of research we're doing. We're looking at people that don't fit, looking at familial lung cancer, looking at genetic subtypes.

We're starting to change that narrative, and I think patients are really starting to benefit. There are lung cancers that are related to smoking, and there are lung cancers that as far as researchers can tell right now occur due to bad luck. A smoker can get a nonsmoker's lung cancer, and a nonsmoker can be exposed to certain elements that lead him or her to develop a smoker's lung cancer.

That being said, there are many cases of lung cancer that are seemingly unexplainable. National Comprehensive Cancer Network. Accessed Jan. Non-small cell lung cancer adult. Mayo Clinic; Small cell lung cancer. Niederhuber JE, et al. Cancer of the lung: Non-small cell lung cancer and small cell lung cancer. In: Abeloff's Clinical Oncology. Elsevier; Small cell lung cancer adult.

Lung cancer prevention PDQ. National Cancer Institute. Accessed March 14, Lung cancer — non-small cell: Screening. American Society of Clinical Oncology.

Detterbeck FC, et al. Diagnosis and management of lung cancer, 3rd ed. Amin MB, et al. Springer; Leventakos K, et al.

Advances in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer: Focus on nivolumab, pembrolizumab and atezolizumab. Warner KJ. Allscripts EPSi. Mayo Clinic. Cairns LM. Managing breathlessness in patients with lung cancer. Nursing Standard. World Health Organization. Even smoking cannabis without mixing it with tobacco is potentially dangerous. This is because cannabis also contains substances that can cause cancer.

Radon is a natural radioactive gas that comes from tiny amounts of uranium present in all rocks and soils. It can sometimes be found in buildings. If radon is breathed in, it can damage your lungs, particularly if you're a smoker. Radon gas causes a small number of lung cancer deaths in England. Exposure to certain chemicals and substances which are used in several occupations and industries may increase your risk of developing lung cancer.