Thin smokers at increased lung cancer risk

A research in China has revealed that smokers who are thin are more at risk of suffering from lung cancer than people who are fat.

According to China's Xinhua news agency, researchers from the National University of Singapore surveyed 63,257 middle- aged and elderly Chinese Singaporeans from 1993 onwards, reports Star Online.

Local English newspaper the Straits Times reported, the research examined the relationship between smokers' body mass index (BMI) - a measure of obesity - and their chances of lung cancer.

It found that pack-a-day smokers with a BMI of at least 28 were six times as likely to get lung cancer as equally heavy people who had never lit up.

But thinner pack-a-day smokers, who had a BMI of less than 20, were 11 times as likely to get the disease as non-smokers of a similar weight and BMI.

Lung cancer is the second most common cancer in men in Singapore, and the third most common in women.