An analysis of health data by epidemiologist Bruce Leistikow links smoking to more than 70 percent of the cancer death burden among Massachusetts men in 2003. This percentage is much higher than the previous estimate of 34 percent in 2001, supporting the growing understanding that smoking is a cause of many more cancer deaths besides lung cancer. Leistikow used National Center for Health Statistics data to compare death rates from lung cancer to death rates from all other cancers among Massachusetts males. The study was published online in BMC Cancer.