# Stopping smoking

Source: https://onco.cc/terms/smoking-cessation/  
OnCo record `smoking-cessation` (Term). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

The single largest thing anyone can do about lung cancer, before or after a diagnosis. Risk falls the longer it is since the last cigarette and falls further the younger someone stops, and the benefit is large even for people who have smoked for decades.

## Summary

Tobacco causes 72 percent of UK lung cancer cases and about 86 percent of UK lung cancer deaths, so stopping is the one intervention that reaches most of the disease. The size of the benefit is measurable at every age. Of British men who smoke all their lives 15.9 percent die of lung cancer by age 75, against 9.9 percent of those who stop by 60, 6 percent by 50, 3 percent by 40 and 1.7 percent by 30; of women, 9.5 percent for lifelong smokers, 5.3 percent for stopping by 60 and 2.2 percent by 50. Risk is 43 percent lower about seven years after stopping and 72 percent lower about twelve years after, compared with continuing. Starting younger is worse in the other direction: lung cancer death risk rises 37 percent for each five years earlier that smoking began. NICE NG209 covers the whole of tobacco policy and practice, from preventing uptake in people aged 24 and under to treating dependence in everyone aged 12 and over, and was updated on 4 February 2025 to add recommendations on cytisinicline. Lung cancer screening is deliberately built around this: the UK National Screening Committee recommended targeted screening with integrated smoking cessation services, and the lung health check offers stop-smoking support at the same appointment, on the argument that the moment a person is assessed for lung cancer risk is the moment they are most likely to act. Stopping after a cancer diagnosis also matters, for treatment tolerance and second primaries as well as for survival.

## Fields

- Kind: Term
- Last checked: 2026-09-25
- Also known as: smoking cessation; quitting smoking; stop smoking support; tobacco dependence treatment; giving up smoking
- Tags: lung

## Sources

- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoking_cessation
- CRUK: lung cancer risk factors (attributable fractions for the UK): https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/health-professional/cancer-statistics/statistics-by-cancer-type/lung-cancer/risk-factors
- NICE NG209: tobacco, preventing uptake, promoting quitting and treating dependence (published 30 November 2021, last updated 4 February 2025): https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng209
- UK National Screening Committee: lung cancer screening recommendation (June 2022 review): https://view-health-screening-recommendations.service.gov.uk/lung-cancer/
- GOV.UK: new lung cancer screening roll out to detect cancer sooner (26 June 2023): https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-lung-cancer-screening-roll-out-to-detect-cancer-sooner

## Connected records

- cancers: [Bladder & urothelial cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/urothelial/), [Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/head-and-neck/), [Lung cancer (all types)](https://onco.cc/cancers/lung-cancer/), [Non-small-cell lung cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/nsclc/), [Small-cell lung cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/sclc/)
- technologies: [NHS Targeted Lung Health Check (lung cancer screening programme)](https://onco.cc/technologies/nhs-targeted-lung-health-check/), [Smoking cessation in cancer patients](https://onco.cc/technologies/smoking-cessation-after-diagnosis/)
- terms: [Asbestos](https://onco.cc/terms/asbestos/), [Lung cancer in never-smokers](https://onco.cc/terms/never-smoker-lung-cancer/), [Pack-year](https://onco.cc/terms/pack-year/), [Radon](https://onco.cc/terms/radon/), [Targeted lung health check](https://onco.cc/terms/targeted-lung-health-check/)

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