Smoking: additional burden on aging and death

Genes and Environment

Table 1 Age and cumulative lung cancer mortality of continuing and former smokers

Age (age at cessation)	Mortality (%)^a	Age corresponding to smoker^b
Continuing smoker
50	0.40
55	0.95
60	2.25
65	5.00
70	9.65
75	15.9
Former smoker
75 (60)	9.9	70.22
75 (50)	6.0	66.27
75 (40)	3.0	61.72
75 (30)	1.7	58.37

^aData from Doll et al. [20]
^bThe corresponding continuing smoker’s age at which cumulative lung cancer mortality risk is equal to the risk of that in former smokers at age 75 was calculated from the quintic equation^c which takes account of the risk in continuing smokers. It is a simple technique and not dependent on the cancer model. The difference between age 75 and the corresponding age is considered to be “delayed effect on aging” by cessation of smoking (Fig. 1)
^c y = − 1.333333 × 10^− 6 x ⁵ + 3.833333 × 10^− 4 x ⁴ − 0.04306667x ³ + 2.381417x ² − 65.0675x + 704.4

ISSN: 1880-7062