Nearly one in 10 cancer survivors are still smoking years after their diagnosis, according to a new study from the American Cancer Society.
Researchers analyzed data from 2,938 patients nine years after their diagnosis, and 9.3 percent were current smokers, writes Time.
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Of those patients, 83 percent smoked every day, which is equal to 14.7 cigarettes per day on average.
The study analyzed patients with the 10 most common types of cancer: breast, prostate, bladder, uterine, melanoma, colorectal, kidney, Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, ovarian, and lung.
The findings were published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention,
The highest rates of smoking appeared in patients who were diagnosed with bladder (17.2 percent) and lung (14.9 percent) cancer - smoking-related cancers, writes Time.
Smoking cigarettes is known to decrease the effectiveness of cancer treatments, increase the probability that the cancer will recur, and reduce survival time.
'We need to follow up with cancer survivors long after their diagnoses to see whether they are still smoking and offer appropriate counseling, interventions, and possible medications to help them quit,' Lee Westmaas, director of tobacco research at the American Cancer Society (ACS) and lead author of the study, said in a statement.
Of the reported smokers, 46.6 percent said they planned to quit, but 10.1 percent said they did not plan to quit, and 43.3 percent were not sure.
In addition, 88.6 percent of the current smokers had quit before they were diagnosed.
Researchers also looked at several sociodemographic factors among the patients.
Survivors were more likely to smoke if they were younger, female, had lower education, lower income or drank more alcohol, writes Time.
Those who smoked more were generally older or married and were less likely to want to quit.
The study suggests that the lack of motivation to quit in older patients could suggest they do not believe the difficulties of quitting will be worth increased quality of life or life expectancy.
The researchers believe future studies should focus on the importance of psychosocial variables and the link to current smoking or motivation to quit.
'Those who smoke heavily long after their diagnosis may require more intense treatment addressing specific psychosocial characteristics such as perceptions of risk, beliefs of fatalism, etc. that may influence motivation to quit.'
