Calling all smokers! Before you’re tempted to light up that next cigarette, you might want to take a moment to consider the serious damage you’ll be doing to the most important part of nearly every cell in your body — your DNA. Using new laboratory techniques, scientists have been able to take a detailed look at DNA taken from a lung tumour of a persistent smoker, and it’s not a pretty sight.
The links between smoking and lung cancer are clear. Statistics show that for every 100 people who die from lung cancer in the developed world, nearly 90 will have a history of smoking tobacco. People who quit smoking by middle age remove most of the risk of developing smoking-related lung cancer. Even people with early-stage lung cancer greatly improve their chances of survival if they stop smoking. However, despite an overall reduction in lung cancer cases since the 1970s (when smoking was a lot more prevalent), it is still the commonest form of cancer in the world today. It killed 1.38 million people in 2008. But how does inhaling tobacco smoke lead to a disease as deadly as lung cancer? The answer lies in our DNA.
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