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A cigarette is put out in an ashtray. Medical researchers said that quitting smoking could double a cancer patient’s chances of living for another five years. / Korea Times File
By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
A group of British medical researchers has reported that quitting smoking after being diagnosed with early-stage lung cancer doubles a patient’s chances of living for another five years. (more…)
F.D.K. Liddell
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McGill University, Montreal, CanadaAddress for correspondence: 35D Arterberry Road, London SW20 8AG, UK. Tel./fax: +44-20-8946-8548
Received 27 April, 2000; Accepted 27 July, 2000.
Both cigarette smoke and inhaled asbestos fibres can cause lung cancer, but the assessment of how these agents act in combination is a matter of great difficulty. In non-smokers, the condition is so rare that, in any cohort of asbestos workers, the standardised mortality ratio (SMR, that is the ratio of the numbers of deaths observed and expected) is quite imprecise. The SMR for smokers, with which it has to be compared, is also subject to sampling error, making the interaction even more unstable. This accounts for much of the variation that has bedevilled evaluation. (more…)
