Does smoking bring to lung cancer?

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States , among both men and women. It claims more lives than colon, prostate and breast cancer combined. Since the mid-1990s, more than 150,000 Americans have died of the disease each year.

Yet most of these deaths could have been prevented. That's because smoking accounts for about 85 percent to 90 percent of lung cancer cases. Although your risk of cancer increases with the length of time and number of cigarettes you smoke, quitting smoking, even after many years, can greatly reduce your chances of developing the disease.

Protecting yourself from exposure to other leading causes of lung cancer, such as asbestos, radon and secondhand smoke, also decreases your risk. Prevention is especially important because lung cancer usually isn't discovered until it's at an advanced stage when the outlook for recovery is less positive.