Nearly 50% Of Deaths From 12 Cancers May Be Linked To Cigarettes: Report

Nearly 50 percent of deaths due to the most common forms of smoking-related cancers may be due to the use of cigarettes, a recent U.S. study claims. The researchers have linked the cigarette use not only lung cancer, but to cancers of 11 other body organs.

The study has revealed that smoking may lead to cancer of the colon, trachea, bronchus, bladder and esophagus, in addition to the six other forms. The statistics analyzed during the study showed that nearly 50 percent of the cancer-related deaths in the U.S. in 2011 among people age 35 and older were due to the smoking-related cancer.

To calculate the number of people who died due to a smoking-related cancer, the researchers looked at the cases of specific-cancer types that would not have occurred if the patient was not a smoker. The researchers took into account several other factors -- including age, race and alcohol habits -- to reach the conclusion.

The findings challenge a U.S. Surgeon General's Report of 2014, which claimed that the number of tobacco-related deaths had dropped in recent years because of modern medical interventions. The researchers say the study findings differed because the 2014 report considered only deaths due to smoking-related lung cancer. However, tobacco has been linked to deaths from other forms of cancer as well.

“The bottom line is that while we’ve made a lot of progress against the tobacco epidemic in the United States, there’s still much work to do,” said Rebecca Siegel, lead author of the studay, in a statement. “While smoking prevalence continues to slowly decline, the use of alternative tobacco products is on the rise.”

The complete study was published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine.