Gary Davis, 69, smoked most of his adult life and struggled to give up cigarettes but got his final motivation after he was diagnosed with lung cancer and his surgeon told him he had to quit or he couldn't get a needed procedure. When he got home from that visit, the smoking cessation drug he had ordered was waiting for him. "I said, right, that must be a sign telling me 'Quit smoking,' " Davis said.
"And I did." Not only did it improve his health but his quick action potentially added years to his life despite the cancer. Report finds SC more likely to scan for lung cancer, but patients less likely to survive A new study found that those like Davis who quit within three months of their cancer diagnosis had a 26 percent reduction in early death compared to those who kept smoking and those quitters lived on average nearly two years longer.
As the annual Great American Smokeout Day approaches on Nov. 21, when smokers are urged to quit for at least a day, there is new evidence it has a powerful effect on health even for cancer patients. It also provides fresh evidence that doctors and cancer centers need to redouble efforts to help their patients give up the habit.
The study in JAMA Oncology looked at more than 4,500 current smokers who received a cancer diagnosis at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, and then were also referred to smoking cessation therapy, between January 2006 and March 2022. The vast majority of those who were able to quit within six months of diagnosis li.