Here’s more evidence that it’s never too late to quit smoking. A study in the British Medical Journal finds that kicking the habit after a diagnosis of early stage lung cancer doubles the odds that a patient will live another five years.

Researchers found that only about a third of early stage lung cancer patients who kept smoking survived for five years, while 63 to 70 percent of those who quit survived that long.

They believe survival seemed to come from a lower likelihood of tumour recurrence, not from heart/lung improvements.

The American Lung Association says these are surprising, dramatic results. The caveat is that they apply to early lung cancer, and very few lung cancers are diagnosed early.

Of course, the best way to prevent lung cancer is to never smoke, or to quit if you do smoke.

People who quit smoking have a dramatically lower incidence of being diagnosed with lung cancer over their life span. And lung associations on both sides of the pond say it’s never too late to stop smoking cigarettes.