If the cancer risk from smoking is permanent, then why quit?

You miss a couple of important points in your question's clarification. First of all, 50% is actually quite a substantial amount. And the longer you go after quitting, the higher your chances of not getting cancer are. That is part of the charm of a Bell Curve and statistics. read more

Sad to say, but lung cancer may be the kindest outcome from smoking since it ends relatively quickly - 6 months to a year. It is the slow strangulation of emphysema, Berger's disease, diabetes and other complications of smoking that make it imperative you quit sooner rather than later. read more

The choice to quit smoking is one of the best health decisions you can make. Smoking damages nearly every organ and organ system in the body. In addition to raising your risk for heart disease, emphysema, stroke, leukemia, asthma, pneumonia, and tuberculosis, smokers are extremely likely to develop cancer, particularly fatal cancers. read more

RELATED: ‘Surprising Link’: Smoking and Bladder Cancer. If at first you don’t succeed — keep trying. Maybe you’ve tried and failed to quit smoking in the past. You may think it’s something you’re simply not capable of doing. But the truth is, most people struggle to quit, especially the first time. read more