This cancer is one that takes more lives annually and affects people 40 and older. Since 85% of those who suffer are smokers, snuff is the major risk factor for developing it. Only one of every eight people who suffer are not smokers.

There are also other substances such as asbestos, uranium or radon is a colorless, odorless gas that builds up in homes and comes from the stoves, which are also risk factors for lung cancer.

Other risk factors include industrial pollution, smoke from factories or cars or hormonal factors of the person that make it more susceptible to developing it. A risk factor can also be the presence of scars in the lung, caused by surgery, bullets or knives.

They are also risk factors:

- Power when you include diets rich in saturated fats.
- Obviously smoking or live with people who smoke, since cigarette smoke contains many carcinogens.
- Failure to use protective masks or special clothing when working with hazardous materials like asbestos.
- Genetic predisposition, when parents have had lung cancer.

One of the measures to prevent lung cancer is quit smoking, since some studies showed that with some weeks of abstinence, begin to heal wounds that may be precancerous and between five to ten years of leaving the drug, cancer risk is slightly higher than for people who have never smoked.

The snuff smoking is the main cause in 90% of cases of lung cancer in both men and women. Decades ago, this tumor was much less common in women and it was featured it was more likely that was not related to snuff. These differences are disappearing rapidly, reflecting the incorporation of women with smoking in the previous years.

Another part of this type of cancer is caused by inhaled substances and who are in the workplace, a phenomenon related to the 10% -15% of lung cancer in males and 5% in women. The most important of these substances are asbestos, such as those used in asbestos factories.

Lung cancer can also be caused by radiation received at the chest, such as treatment with radiation therapy used to treat breast cancer and lymphoma. The interval between radiation exposure and cancer onset is usually very long, around age 20. The greatest risk are people who tried for many years with old appliances, and smoked during the following years. The risk with modern radiotherapy equipment is very low.

Hereditary factors have little relation to lung cancer.