Many who are diagnosed with lung cancer assume that quitting smoking will do nothing to help their chances at surviving this horrible disease however new studies shown in the British Medical Journal is proving otherwise. These studies show that if the lung cancer is caught in the early stages and the patient quits smoking they will double their chance of survival! This could mean over five years compared to other survival rates.

“The results are quite dramatic. I don’t think anybody would have expected such a dramatic difference. It’s incredible,” said Dr. Norman Edelman, chief medical officer for the American Lung Association. “The important caveat is that this is early lung cancer.”

Lung cancer is the most diagnosed form of cancer in the world and the second most common diagnosed cancer in Britain coming in behind breast cancer. There are around 39,000 cases diagnosed yearly.

This is the first of studies that show that offering early stage lung cancer smoking cessation treatments may prove to be more beneficial than once thought.

Studies that were performed show that those who continued smoking after a lung cancer diagnosis had a much higher chance of death and tumor returning compared to those who were diagnosed and quit smoking. The five year survival rate was up to 70% of those who quit smoking compared to the 33% of those who continued to smoke.

“The message is you should never give up on giving up (smoking),” said Amanda Parsons, of the U.K. Centre for Tobacco Control Studies at the University of Birmingham, who led the study. “Even at the stage where you have been diagnosed with early stage lung cancer … if you give up smoking, your body can still partially recover and your risk is reduced,” she said.

With such strong findings many now can understand that it truly is never too late to quit smoking.

The study was paid for by the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research U.K. and other governmental bodies.

Smokers Can Double Cancer Survival If They Quit Smoking