If far more adults stop smoking and no youngsters take up the habit, 120,000 fewer people will be diagnosed with cancer in the coming years, according to cancer institute IKNL.

At the same time, the health service will save billions of euros, the IKNL said in a new report on Tuesday.

It is the first time the agency had analysed the impact of stopping smoking on cancer diagnoses. Every year, more than 14,000 people in the Netherlands are diagnosed with lung cancer, 6,800 with bladder cancer and 2,700 with cancer of the esophagus, all of which are smoking-related.

Currently some 19% of the Dutch smoke, but if this can be cut back to 5% by 2032, then diagnoses of these three forms of cancer would be slashed by 120,000 by 2045.

“We’ve looked at the types of cancer most closely linked to smoking,” research leader Maarten Bijlsma said. The figures do not include the impact on children who are now aged between four and 10. If they don’t take up the tobacco habit, a further 66,000 cancer diagnoses will be prevented.

Preventing so many cancer cases will also reduce healthcare spending by some €5.5 billion, the IKNL said.