This article is from the WebMD Medical News Archive

Aug. 8, 2005 -- ABC news anchor Peter Jennings died of lung cancer on Aug. 7 at the age of 67.

Jennings announced his lung cancer diagnosis four months ago. The cancer was reportedly inoperable, meaning that it could not be treated adequately with surgery.

"As you all know, Peter learned only this spring that the health problem he'd been struggling with was lung cancer," said ABC News President David Westin in a statement.

"With Kayce [his wife], he moved straight into an aggressive chemotherapy treatment. He knew that it was an uphill struggle. But he faced it with realism, courage, and a firm hope that he would be one of the fortunate ones. In the end, he was not."

There are several risk factors that increase the chance of developing lung cancer; smoking is the most important one. The longer you smoke and the more you smoke per day, the higher your risk of developing lung cancer. The good news is that quitting can reduce your risk.

For more information about lung cancer, WebMD spoke with Jay Brooks, MD, chief of hematology and oncology at the Ochsner Clinic in Baton Rouge, La.

Q. How long after you quit smoking does your risk of lung cancer/heart disease return to normal?

A. They are two separate things. For heart disease, the risk decreases much more rapidly than lung cancer. Within the first two to three years after you quit smoking, many of the effects of heart disease will begin to diminish. There will be some slowing in the progression of blockages that form in heart arteries from smoking.

Lung cancer is a much more difficult issue. If you smoke two packs of cigarettes a day for 20 years ... your risk of developing lung cancer is 70 times that of the general population. ... Seven and eight years after you quit smoking, your risk is cut in half, but it's still 35 times that of the general population. Some people think it takes about 15 years for the risk to drop back to the general population. Some people don't believe it ever drops that low.

The message here is that if you're smoking, quitting is the best thing to do. The benefits for heart disease [happen] much faster than for lung cancer. You cut your risk [for lung cancer], but it still is above that of the general population.

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