Study: 10 percent of cancer survivors still smoke tobacco

Roughly 10 percent of cancer survivors gamble with their health by continuing to smoke tobacco after they are cured, a new study found, underscoring just how challenging it is for people to quit the dangerous habit.

In a survey of nearly 3,000 cancer survivors, researchers found that approximately nine years after being diagnosed, 9.3 percent of them were current smokers, meaning that they had smoked tobacco in the last 30 days.

Among those cancer survivors who were considered current smokers, more than 80 percent of them smoked an average of nearly 15 cigarettes daily, according to the study, which was published on Wednesday in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. The remainder smoked about 11 out of every 30 days and averaged fewer than six cigarettes per day.