Cancer stats emphasize smoking risks

Smokers are up to 10 times more likely to develop oral cancer and four times more likely to have heart disease than non-smokers, says the Quebec Council on Tobacco and Health.

Moreover, 85 per cent of lung cancers and 60 per cent of throat cancer deaths are linked to smoking, the council said on the first day of Quebec Tobacco-Free Week 2018.

The campaign slogan, “Le tabac laisse des marques” (roughly, “tobacco leaves its imprint”), aims to reflect shocking cancer statistics.

For instance, the prognosis for head and neck cancers is much worse in smokers than in nonsmokers, said Dr. Alex Mlynarek, otolaryngologist and assistant professor in the department of otolaryngology and head and neck surgery at McGill University.

People with head cancers who smoke are more likely to have other cancers, such as esophagus, stomach or lung cancer, than nonsmokers or those who stopped smoking, Mlynarek said in a statement released by the council.

“In these patients, chemotherapy treatments are less effective,” he added.

About 1,070 Quebecers were diagnosed with mouth cancer in Quebec in 2017, and 300 died. Surgical removal of the tumour sometimes requires amputating parts of the lip, tongue and nose. The situation is just as dramatic for the 345 Quebecers who were diagnosed last year with throat cancer, which can lead to a total laryngectomy for nearly one in three patients.

Lung cancer remains the deadliest, as 83 per cent of sufferers die within five years of diagnosis.