If cancer is diagnosed in a smoker, studies have found that quitting smoking will still be helpful. Even recent quitters are more likely to recover from cancer than smoking patients are. Continuing to smoke may decrease the effectiveness of treatment and may worsen treatment side effects. For example, patients who have received radiation therapy for laryngeal cancer are less likely to regain satisfactory voice quality if they continue to smoke. Also, wound healing following surgery will be more difficult if one continues to smoke.

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