Study: Many cancer survivors smoke years after diagnosis
Nearly one in ten cancer survivors reports smoking many years after a diagnosis, according to a new study by American Cancer Society researchers. Further, among ten cancer sites included in the analysis, the highest rates of smoking were in bladder and lung cancers, two sites strongly associated with smoking. The study appears online in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.
Cigarette smoking decreases the effectiveness of cancer treatments, increases the probability of recurrence, and reduces survival time. Nonetheless, some studies show a significant proportion of cancer survivors continue to smoke after being diagnosed. Most of those studies cover a relatively short time period. There remains a lack of information on smoking prevalence for survivors many years after diagnosis.