Lung cancer keeps on holding the top rank among killer cancers in America. It causes more deaths than all the other categories like prostrate, liver, breast, kidney, and melanoma put together. The single largest cause of this malady is smoking, reported a recent research.

Of two major known causes, smoking is markedly bigger, and requires more attention because the lesser one, the genetic, is unavoidable too. Dr. James Mulshine, professor of internal medicine at Rush University Chicago declared smoking to be the most dangerous legal activity in society .“Anti-smoking measures are the only useful shield against the malady” say experts working on finding better ways to detect lung cancer.

Dr. Michael Thun, vice president at epidemiology and surveillance research for the American Cancer Society says “presently, the success in reducing lung cancer death rates is solely because of men leaving smoking”.

in 2005, Thun told, the cancer related death ratio in men decreased but the same for women rose in 1998. The only apparent reason is the trend of leaving smoking in men. “Men’s rate is equal to women now, but women who entered the arena later are finding it more difficult to quit.”

Current research at the National Cancer Institute has refuted the notion that women might be more prone to smoking linked deaths than men. “It looks like the effect of tobacco is the same for women as it is for men,” said Dr. Tim Byers, deputy director of the University of Colorado Cancer Center.

Tough research has found a deficient gene named Alpha 1-antitrypsin linked to lung cancer, yet doctors doubt that this knowledge will help fighting against cancer because we have no control over genetics.