{"id":203123,"date":"2025-10-10T16:58:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T16:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/203123\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T16:58:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T16:58:08","slug":"quitting-smoking-nearly-doubles-life-expectancy-for-cancer-patients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/203123\/","title":{"rendered":"Quitting smoking nearly doubles life expectancy for cancer patients"},"content":{"rendered":"

Experts argue it’s never too late to quit smoking<\/a>, and a new study says that applies to people with late-stage cancer as well.<\/p>\n

Patients with advanced cancer gained nearly a full year of additional life if they quit smoking, compared to those who kept lighting up, researchers reported Thursday in the Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“It is never too late, and no one is ever ‘too sick’ to quit smoking,” said senior researcher Dr. Li-Shiun Chen<\/a>, director of the smoking cessation program in the Barnes-Jewish Hospital’s Siteman Cancer Center at Washington University School of Medicine at St. Louis.<\/p>\n

“Individuals with cancer who stop smoking after their diagnosis live significantly longer than those who continue smoking, even when their cancer is at an advanced stage,” Chen continued in a news release.<\/p>\n

For the study, researchers followed more than 13,000 cancer patients treated at the Siteman Cancer Center between June and December 2018, tracking whether they quit smoking following their diagnosis.<\/p>\n

Of those patients, 13% said they were currently smoking, researchers found.<\/p>\n

Only about 1 in 5 of those smokers quit within six months after their first visit for cancer treatment<\/a>, according to the study.<\/p>\n

Those who kept smoking had a nearly doubled risk of dying within two years, compared to those who quit smoking as part of their cancer care, results showed.<\/p>\n

“Lifestyle change such as quitting smoking can prolong survival even more than some chemotherapies,” lead researcher Dr. Steven Tohmasi<\/a>, a surgical resident at Siteman Cancer Center, said in a news release.<\/p>\n

“Our research reinforces the idea that smoking cessation should be considered the fourth pillar of cancer care — alongside surgery, radiation therapy and chemo\/immunotherapy,” he continued. “Future cancer care must treat smoking cessation not as an optional extra, but as a core part of the treatment plan. By doing so, we can maximize survival, improve quality of life and truly deliver comprehensive oncology care.”<\/p>\n

A North Carolina doctor who reviewed the findings called the doubled survival odds for cancer patients who quit smoking a “huge effect.”<\/p>\n

“Because this is an observational study, we need to be careful about inferring causality – we can’t say with confidence that smoking cessation saved all of these people’s lives,” said Dr. James Davis<\/a>, medical director of the Center for Smoking Cessation at the Duke Cancer Institute in Durham, N.C.<\/p>\n

“We can say, however, that in the context of what we already know about smoking and cancer, this study suggests a profound impact of smoking cessation before and after a person develops cancer,” he said.<\/p>\n

More information<\/p>\n

The American Cancer Society has more on the benefits of quitting tobacco if you have cancer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

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