BOSTON -- Peter Jennings was one of 170,000 Americans diagnosed with lung cancer each year.

NewsCenter 5's Liz Brunner reported that it is the most deadly form of cancer, responsible for 28 percent of all cancer deaths.

Treatments are few once lung cancer is diagnosed, but there is one very obvious, but often very difficult, ways to reduce your risk of getting lung cancer.

Jennings' voice was already weak when he made his last broadcast -- a sign that his cancer had advanced.

"Lung cancer metastasizes or spreads very quickly so that by the time it's found, it's already spread throughout the body," Massachusetts General Hospital Dr. Nancy Rigotti said.

Jennings gave up smoking 20 years ago, but had a brief relapse following the 2001 terrorist attacks.

"But then he quit again, and I think the message, perhaps his legacy, is that it is possible to quit smoking, and you should keep trying, and it's never too late," Rigotti said.

That is how Leslie Saporetti feels. She quit smoking last year after 30 years of cigarettes.

"I was smoking a pack and half to two packs a day," she said.

Saporetti started smoking when she was 13 -- long before cigarettes had warning labels. Her mother and sister both died of cancer, but even that wasn't enough to get her to stop.

"One day I was looking at my daughter, and I realized she was as old as I was when I started smoking, and I just couldn't imagine her holding a cigarette and smoking herself," she said.

She got help at a smoking cessation study at Massachusetts General Hospital -- a combination of medication and counseling -- and lowered her risk of developing lung cancer.

"A lot of smokers think, 'It's too late. I've smoked too long, too heavily. I'm too old. It doesn't matter.' But that's not the case. On average, when a smoker quits they gain 10 years of life. That's a lot," Rigotti said.

"I will never smoke again," Saporetti said.

She hasn't smoked in almost 10 months. She said that quitting was the hardest thing she's ever done, but had some advice for smokers of any age.

"I think they should just know that it is really hard to stop, but it can be done, and that there are a lot of programs to help them and to just keep trying," she said.

Several new stop smoking drugs are under development, but there are ways now available to quit. You can call the American Cancer Society and speak to a health professional directly about the options at (800) ACS-2345.