Vaping Causes Oral and Lung Cancers
Vaping is likely to cause lung and oral cancer, researchers have found, as they urged regulators to act now rather than wait decades for a definitive level of risk. Cancer researchers led by the University of New South Wales in Sydney analyzed reviews of evidence from animal studies, human case reports, and laboratory research published between 2017 and 2025, in one of the most comprehensive assessments to date of whether nicotine e-cigarettes could cause cancer. There are early warning signs in the body strongly linked to cancer risk, including DNA damage and inflammation. The review found vaping is associated with these pre-carcinogenic changes. There is no doubt that cells and tissues of the oral cavity, the mouth, and the lungs are altered by inhalation of e-cigarettes.
Since modern e-cigarettes were only invented in the early 2000s, there is not enough long-term data from large numbers of people vaping who developed cancer to determine definitive risk. Many vapers also smoke, making it difficult to distinguish the effects of vaping alone from those of tobacco. For these reasons, the review did not measure how many people might develop cancer from vaping but instead assessed whether it causes the kinds of biological changes known to lead to the disease. However, the review included case reports from dentists who noticed oral cancer in people who had only vaped and who had never smoked. It also referred to animal studies, and another study that found that e-cigarette vapor developed lung tumors at greater rates in exposed mice compared to unexposed mice, although these findings do not necessarily translate directly to humans. Based on all this information, it was determined that e-cigarettes are likely to cause lung cancer and oral cancer, though we cannot say how great that burden will be.
It took 100 years of emerging and growing evidence before the US Surgeon General recognized smoking as a cause of cancer in 1964. It took nearly 8,000 studies for this conclusion to be reached, despite earlier warning signs that were dismissed or discredited, including by doctors. The same fate could be repeated with vaping if we do not take emerging research and warning signs seriously. Every study like this needs to be considered seriously by policymakers, government officials, and health organizations. There is still not a definitive declaration that doctors can make saying that vaping causes x, y, z types of cancer. This is most likely decades away. Smoking was once given the benefit of the doubt, but vaping should not be given the same given the strength of carcinogenicity data. It has always been assumed that vapes are safer than cigarettes, but the data shows that they might not be safe at all. We have no conclusive way in which to get people off the vapes. With smoking there has been nicotine gum, but with vapes, there is no conclusive way to get people off them.
Regulators need to act to protect people, especially children, from harm. Regulators have the full spectrum of evidence. Vaping is not an alternative to smoking; it is not an alternative to anything in the context of being safer. It should only be known as being dangerous. One professor from London believes that it would be an overinterpretation to say vaping is as harmful as smoking using the research presented because vaping does not involve exposure to the combustion products in smoking which have massive carcinogenic effects. Vaping was often assessed in terms of health risks compared to smoking, and it is important to assess whether vapes could cause cancer in their own right. This could be the first study to assert that there is likely an increased cancer risk for people who vape, compared with people who do not vape. The information from this study is very important for young people who have never smoked. Vaping is not a safe alternative to smoking for nonsmokers.
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Source:
Melissa Davey, “Vaping likely to cause lung and oral cancer, Australian researchers find in new review of evidence” The Guardian (March 30, 2026). [Link]
