Cigarette smoking and lung cancer in New Mexico.

We have used population-based data for the state of New Mexico to calculate cigarette-smoking-specific incidence rates for lung cancer, cumulative incidence rates for lung cancer, and estimates of the proportion of lung cancer cases attributable to smoking. For white New Mexicans, the incidence of lung cancer increased with age and was markedly higher in smokers than in nonsmokers. From 25 through 84 yr of age, the cumulative incidence of lung cancer was 0.9% in nonsmoking males and 0.5% in nonsmoking females. The cumulative incidence rates were much higher for smokers; for males who smoked 20 or more cigarettes daily from age 25, the cumulative risk of lung cancer through age 84 was 31.7%. For females with the same cigarette smoking history, the estimate of cumulative incidence through age 84 years was 15.3%. The population-attributable risks for lung cancer associated with cigarette smoking were 89.5% for males and 85.5% for females.