In Korea, smoking rates are exceedingly high among men and, unfortunately, there are signs of a looming epidemic of tobacco-caused disease. For example, lung cancer mortality has been reported as the fastest growing cause of death among Koreans. Few studies have examined the effects of smoking on cancer mortality in Korea, where male smoking prevalence is among the world's highest. Examining the risks of smoking in Korea may provide new insights into lifestyle-related modifiers. This cohort study has the potential to generate powerful evidence to describe the risk of smoking in a population with distinct background disease rates and distribution of lifestyle risk factors relative to western populations previously studied. - To examine the effects of smoking on cancer mortality risk and to determine the relationship of risk to the amount and duration of smoking and the age that smoking began.
A prospective cohort study, with follow-up of nine years, included 1,307,275 Koreans (833,608 men and 473,667 women) from ages 30-88 years. Fifty-six percent of the men and 4.3 percent of the women were current cigarette smokers.
Jee SH, Samet J, Ohrr H, Kim JH, and Kim IS. Smoking and cancer risk in Korean men and women. Cancer Causes Control 2004; 15(4):341-8. See article | 
