QuitSmoking-QuitSmoking.com - Startling Report

A new study finds... The introduction of filtered and low-tar cigarettes in the 1950s coincided with a steady rise in the incidence of a once-rare type of lung cancer that's now the most common form of the disease.

Decades ago, squamous cell carcinoma was the most common form of lung cancer. But between 1950 and 2008, adenocarcinoma became the most frequently diagnosed lung malignancy, as the market share of filtered cigarettes soared from just 1% to almost 100%.

Described as a "correlation of evidence," the apparent link was uncovered by study author Dr. Gary M. Strauss, medical director of the lung cancer program at Tufts-New England Medical Center in Boston. He presented the findings at the 12th World Conference on Lung Cancer, in Seoul, South Korea.

Strauss and his colleagues suggest that the impact of filtered cigarettes on adenocarcinoma rates is due to the introduction of filter vents in filtered cigarettes, making it easier to draw in smoke. These vents allow smokers to take bigger and deeper puffs, thereby inhaling carcinogens further into the bronchial passages and lungs.

The rise of adenocarcinoma is consistent with changes in cigarette design and composition, which the cigarette industry indicated as being safer. These changes were introduced in response to mounting evidence that smoking causes other forms of lung cancer.

The tobacco industry has changed the cigarette over time and deceived the public for decades about its safety which has created an epidemic of lung cancer.

Philip Morris USA's media affairs manager said that he could not comment on the findings. "We cannot comment on a study we have not had a chance to review. Smoking is addictive and causes serious diseases. There is no such thing as a safe cigarette!"

To explain the dramatic rise in diagnoses of adenocarcinoma, Strauss and his team of U.S. researchers first analyzed data concerning cancer rates that had been collected between 1975 and 2003 through the National Cancer Institute's "SEER" program. The figures showed that by the years 2000 to 2003, 47% of all lung cancers were adenocarcinoma.

The American Cancer Society's numbers currently place adenocarcinoma at 40% of all lung cancer cases. Data confirms that adenocarcinoma is by far the most prevalent form of lung cancer today... regardless of race, age and gender.

In 1950, adenocarcinoma constituted just 5% of all lung cancer cases. Filtered cigarettes went from 1% of the U.S. market in 1950 to 98% by 2007. Strauss and his colleagues said they found that the wide-scale adoption of filtered and low-tar cigarettes closely tracked the jump in adenocarcinoma rates.

While adenocarcinoma of the lung has always existed, it is now the most common form of lung cancer, and probably the second most common cause of cancer death. Probably more people die specifically of smoking-related adenocarcinoma today than die of colon cancer.

Strauss said, "So while nothing is really new here, we're putting it all together and what emerges is the story of a tobacco industry that years back actively changed its product to minimize its known connection to certain types of cancers, thereby giving birth to a whole new carcinogenic threat and an even bigger lung cancer killer.

Strauss added, "I'm hoping that there will be a recognition that the tobacco industry actually created this deadly epidemic of smoking-related adenocarcinoma through decades of deception".