Editorial: Comparison of lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in smokers and never-smokers

Abstract

the Research Topic Comparison of lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in smokers and never-smokersTo the memory of Dr. Jerzy Szkudlarek, my best friend, who died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Piotr Kus ́nierczyk Tobacco smoking was invented by Native Americans; archaeological evidence dates it to at least 2 300 years ago (1). However, smoking was not an everyday activity in these societies, as tobacco consumption, i.e. pipe smoking, was sacred, and smoking was limited to religious and social ceremonies (1). Many myths are associated with the origin of tobacco and smoking practices (1, 2). Unfortunately, at present, Native Americans are the population with the highest cigarette smoking rate among all ethnic groups in the United States of America, and the only one still growing, albeit slowly and nonsignificantly, in spite of efforts to promote smoking cessation (3).When America was "discovered" by Europeans, tobacco seeds and the custom of its smoking was imported to the Old Continent. Smoking lost its religious meaning and became an everyday custom leading to addiction, first mostly in men, but within the last 100 years increasingly so in women, particularly in less developed countries. In the years 1950-1952 it was noticed and described that lung cancer is associated with cigarette smoking (4-6). Since then, multiple publications confirming this observation and examining its different aspects have appeared: a PubMed search (Oct 14, 2022, "tobacco smoking and lung cancer") returns 1,096 results. As the numbers of never-smokers, as well as those having quit smoking increases, particularly in developed countries, the interest in the causes of lung cancer in never-smokers and former smokers is on the rise, and the number of publications on this topic is currently increasing (7), reaching 195 results in a PubMed search for "lung cancer never-smokers".