Quit Smoking - What Kinds Of Cancer Are Caused By Smoking Cigarettes?

Types Of Cancer Caused By Smoking Cigarettes - Nurse's Report

If you smoke cigarettes you've probably at one time or another wondered what types or kinds of cancer are caused by smoking cigarettes. You know there are health concerns with smoking cigarettes but you may not know all of them. You no doubt have heard that cigarette smoking causes lung cancer, but there are other kinds of cancer that can be caused by smoking too. Knowing what these are may help you decide to quit smoking once and for all.

First of all there are many diseases, conditions and ailments caused by smoking cigarettes. Besides various cancers which I'll discuss in this article, cigarette smoking causes chronic lung diseases such as emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Perhaps you have suffered from bronchitis a time or two. Or you may even have chronic bronchitis now. If you smoke cigarettes you're damaging the air sacs in your lungs and may end up with emphysema.  Emphysema cannot be reversed.

If you know smokers who have a wheeze in their voice, they may have emphysema.  Eventually they'll be hooked up to oxygen or a portable oxygen tank and you'll see people dragging these around if they have any energy left to do so.

Smoking also causes heart disease, stroke and cataracts. Most older smokers have cataracts and have had to undergo cataract surgery.  The lens in the eye becomes cloudy so they're forced to have the surgery.  Glasses won't correct this.   Women who are pregnant and still smoke can cause the baby to be stillborn or born with a lower birthweight. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) may be linked to it. And of course it causes nicotine addiction.

So what kinds of cancer are caused by smoking cigarettes? You no doubt know that lung cancer is one of them.  Smoking causes about 85% of the lung cancer deaths in the US today. For the other cancers that you might not be aware of they are cancers of the larynx (voice box), cancers of the oral cavity and pharynx (mouth and throat), cancers of the esophagus and bladder cancer. Others cancers caused by smoking include kidney, pancreatic, cervical and stomach cancers.  Smoking cigarettes can also cause acute myeloid leukemia - another cancer.

In addition to the cancers caused directly by smoking cigarettes are those that are caused by secondhand smoke. Secondhand smoke is a combination of smoke from a lighted cigarette and smoke that is exhaled.  Secondhand smoke is a known carcinogen. If you're smoking you're also inhaling this secondhand smoke. It's reported that secondhand smoke causes about 3000 lung cancer deaths in nonsmokers.

This is all the more reason to stop smoking. Smoking cessation has dramatic and immediate health benefits.  The sooner you stop smoking the sooner you'll get healthier. Keep this article handy to remind you of what cancers you can be a victim of if you continue to smoke. When someone is diagnosed with lung cancer everyone automatically thinks of smoking as the cause.  But it's not commonly known that bladder cancer, pancreatic cancer and the other cancers I mentioned can be caused by smoking too.

Thousands of people have quit smoking and you can do it too. And now that you know what types of cancers are caused by cigarette smoking you may be more inclined to stop smoking for good. There are many ways to quit including natural methods that work. Nicotine addiction does not have to be a life sentence. You have the power to control it!

copyright©2008  Helen Hecker All rights reserved. No permission is given to copy or reproduce this article in any way or in any form.