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Fresh insights into smoking and cancer | Cancer in Kenya

Posted by: The Conversation Global

Date: Tuesday, 04 February 2020

 

Editor's note

The best way to reduce your risk of lung cancer? Don’t smoke. And if you do, quit smoking. But until now, researchers have been perplexed about why quitting smoking reduces your risk of developing lung cancer so significantly. In a bid to understand what happens to normal cells when they’re exposed to tobacco smoke, a team of researchers instead uncovered the surprising answer to this question. They found that in people who quit smoking, the body actually replenishes the airways with normal, non-cancerous cells that help protect the lungs – which in turn reduces the risk of getting lung cancer.

Cancer still kills nearly 10 million people every year. In Africa, Kenya, Zimbabwe and South Africa have the largest number of new cases. In Kenya, cases have risen by 30% in the past eight years. Gershim Asiki sets out what’s driven those numbers.

Heather Kroeker

Assistant Section Editor

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The findings show it’s never too late to quit. Nuttaphong Sriset/ Shutterstock

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Cancer cases are on the rise in many parts of the continent. CI concept/Shutterstock

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