The median age for patients with lung cancer is 70, however the range can be quite varied.
It is well-known that certain environmental and habitual factors contribute to increasing ones' risk. Cigarette smoking is obviously the main contributor to its development, where it is implicated in nearly 90% of lung cancer deaths worldwide. Cigarette smoke contains more than 60 known carcinogens and may also depress the immune system’s natural response to a newly formed cancer. In the US, smoking is associated with 87% of lung cancers, and the risk of a smoker developing lung cancer in his/her lifetime is between 10-20%, and that figure is higher for men, compared to just 1.4% in non-smokers – so, clearly smoking is a huge risk factor.
The amount of time a person smokes is also related to his/her risk of developing lung cancer, and this risk quickly decreases with smoking cessation, as the damage to the lung tissue is repaired and carcinogenic materials slowly are removed by the body.
Unfortunately, never smoking does not mean one cannot develop lung cancer, and nearly 20% of adults who develop lung cancer have no history of smoking. In these cases, although a true risk factor may not be implicated, potentially the diagnosis seems to be due to a combination of many factors, including genetic factors and exposure to other airborne carcinogens such as asbestos, radon gas, air pollution and second hand smoke.
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