A recent study said on Wednesday, that patients who have had liver transplant and quit smoking, will decrease their risk of developing cancer. Researchers from Spain reviewed data of liver transplant patients between 1990 and 2009, and found out that those who quit smoking had lesser tendencies of getting smoking-related cancer, than those who did not.

The identified smoking-related cancers in their study included lung, head, esophageal, and kidney cancer. Of all the patients in this study, 26 patients developed smoking-related cancer after their liver transplant.

Previous studies will tell us that long duration of treatment that causes immunosuppression among liver transplant patients increases the risk of developing cancer. This current study, however, showed no association between the two.

Instead, this research proved that quitting cigarette smoking after a liver transplant will decrease your risk of getting cancer. The same way that smoking after a liver transplant will increase ones risks of developing cancer.

Dr. J. Ignacio Herrero, said that because smoking has been proven to be a major risk factor for malignancies after a liver transplant, we need to perform screening and intervention programs aimed towards lowering this risk. This will also give us an opportunity to help lower the statistics of post liver transplant patients who develop smoking-related cancers.

This particular research study supported by the International Liver Transplantation Society and the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases will be published on Liver Transplantation journal’s April issue.