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BY EMILY SPAIN

You're watching multisource science/health news analysis from Newsy.

You might think a cancer diagnosis would motivate smokers to put out the cigs. But a new study released Monday by the American Cancer Society shows many smokers with lung or colon cancer are still lighting up months after being diagnosed.

Harvard researchers followed more than 5,000 patients to complete the study.  CNN reports, they found 39 percent of lung cancer patients were smoking when diagnosed and five months later 14 percent were still smoking.  

The research also showed 14 percent of colon cancer patients were smokers when diagnosed and 9 percent kept smoking five months later. Some wonder how learning you have cancer isn’t reason enough to put down the pack.

But researchers told MSNBC smokers find it hard to quit cold turkey or feel there’s no point in quitting... Here’s one smoker’s take.

“I remember my surgeon told me ‘If you ever smoke again, your husband should break your fingers ... And I was like, ‘Okay, I'm not going to smoke again.’  But then I came home from surgery, recuperated for a few weeks and started up again. I couldn’t help myself.”

So do smokers have a death wish? The Director of National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre says it’s more complicated than that. He told The Conversation:

“...[smokers] were ‘more likely to think that they’re not going to incur the negative consequences of their behaviour. That’s where cognitive dissonance comes in; you say, ‘It’ll happen to other people but it won’t happen to me.’ They don’t wish to see the connection between the two and they feel they’re too far down the road.”

Doctors say it’s important for cancer patients to stop smoking because it makes chemo and radiation less effective and surgery more risky.

But one of the researchers tells CNN’s blog The Chart that the study shows smokers need extra help in curbing the addition.

“We know enough now to implement effective cessation programs to identify and help cancer patients quit at the time of diagnosis and support them to prevent relapse. By doing so, we maximize patients’ response to therapy, their quality of life, and their longevity."

The study showed a trend among smoking lung cancer patients -- many tended to have Medicare, low emotional support and had not received treatments.

Transcript by Newsy.