By Vanessa Chalmers Health Reporter For Mailonline
Published: 00:14 GMT, 18 February 2019 | Updated: 09:25 GMT, 18 February 2019
Smoking cigarettes stops the body from fighting deadly skin cancer, according to research.
Smokers and former smokers are 40 per cent less likely to survive the disease ten years after diagnosis than those who have never smoked.
A connection between smoking and melanoma has not been previously found.
The immune response of smokers appears to work, but is less effective, researchers at the University of Leeds said.
They advise that people drop the habit if they are fighting the skin cancer, which has shown to be on the rise in the UK in recent years.
Smokers and former smokers are 40 per cent less likely to survive the disease ten years after diagnosis than those who have never smoked
Professor Julia Newton-Bishop, lead author of the Cancer Research UK-funded study, said: 'The immune
