Here’s a chart of lung cancer death rates since 1930. It goes up the advent of smoking, peaks, and is now declining. Note how low it was in 1930.
http://wm55.inbox.com/thumbs/49_130b75_9c61dd_oG.gif.thumb
Original source: Cancer Facts and Figures 2010, p.2-3 of the linked pdf.
http://www.cancer.org/Cancer/news/annual-report-us-cancer-death-rates-still-declining
Maybe not the same, as I imagine he didn’t really inhale the smoke like an average smoker would, but when Kaufman was in character as his Lounge Lizard alter-ego Tony Clifton, he was constantly chain-smoking, at least if the bio-pic “Man On The Moon” was accurate on this point…
I am surprised by these statistics. Given that 50%-70% of men smoke in China having only 60%-70% of cancer cases being smokers is unexpected. Perhaps it was for a selected study.
Or perhaps as bad as tobacco is other exposures are even worse. For example, just exposure to smoke from indoor coal firesused for cooking and heating. (Not to mention other pollution.)
It’s also a much clearer-cut (especially in the case of small-cell lung cancer) connection and one with fewer confounders, so it made a good poster-child. There was a lot of resistance (fuelled by the tobacco industry and doctors’ skepticism) to the initial studies showing the dangers of smoking.
I don’t know if there is any kind of test, beyond an extended family history.
A woman I knew slightly through work, same age as I was, died of lung cancer at about age 30. She’d never smoked, her family had never smoked, but apparently at least one near relative (her mother?) had also had lung cancer not tied to smoking.
I wouldn’t be surprised if non-smokers with cancer have families that have higher incidences of cancer in general, but that is truly just speculation on my part.
My mother died of lung cancer but she WAS a smoker for 55 years, and spent a lot of time in the basement of our house (which when we sold it, was discovered to have radon levels high enough to require remediation). So in her case it was not so much a matter of whether, but when.
You can obviously avoid other risk factors - if you live in a house with a basement, get a radon test kit and take whatever action you need to if the radon levels are high enough. Avoid situations where you’re exposed to a lot of secondhand smoke or other particulate matter. Don’t go to work in an asbestos mine. Etc.
Oh - from above "30% to 40% of cases in Asian countries, and 53% of all cases in women. " - the person I referred to was obviously a woman - but she was also of Asian descent (Chinese, I think).