One third of smokers diagnosed with cancer continue smoking, perhaps due to low perceived cancer-related benefits of cessation. To examine perceived cancer-related benefits of quitting among newly diagnosed cancer patients who smoke and associations with quit intentions, baseline measures from patients (N = 303) enrolled in a randomized controlled trial were analyzed using hierarchical regression models and bootstrapping. Higher perceived cancer-related benefits of quitting were associated with having a smoking-related cancer and less education. Perceived cancer-related benefits of quitting and quit intentions were positively correlated, particularly among patients with smoking-related cancers. For smokers with smoking-related cancers, perceived cancer-related benefits of quitting are correlated with quit intentions.
Keywords: cancer; health psychology; perception; smoking; smoking cessation.