Cancer patients 'keep on smoking'

Cigarettes may cause 85% of head and neck cancers

Even patients whose cancer has probably been caused by tobacco cannot manage to give up the habit, research suggests.

Almost one-quarter of patients with non-terminal head and neck cancers continued the habit despite their doctors' dire warnings.

This is line with similar findings among lung cancer patients.

Even people who have undergone bypass surgery because smoking has helped clog up their arteries are often found smoking less than two days after being released from intensive care.

The latest research, carried out at the University of Michigan, looked at 81 head and neck cancer patients, mostly white and male.

The study revealed that 23% of the patients were still smoking, and 35% had smoked in the past six months.

In addition, just under half carried on drinking alcohol - a factor which, in combination with smoking, vastly increases the risks of head and neck cancer.

Depression

Almost half of these patients, however, were showing significant signs of depression - and of these, those who also smoked were assessed as having a worse quality of life.

Lead author Sonia Duffy said: "Perhaps in no other group of oncology patients are quality of life factors as important as in head and neck cancer patients, who suffer from debilitating speech, eating and respiratory problem as well as the psychological effects of loss of functioning and change in body image."

UK expert Professor Ian Stolerman, from the Institute of Psychiatry in London, said that the results were testament to the addictive power of nicotine.

He said: "These patients need help. The surgery or treatment they are having costs thousands of pounds per patient.

"This compares with a few hundred pounds per patient for smoking cessation treatment."