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_{Jan. 6, 2026}

Cancer prevention: Can future-focused thinking help smokers quit?

As the warning label on every pack of cigarettes tells us, smoking is harmful. It’s the leading preventable cause of death, disease and disability. And yet, nearly 15 percent of adults in the United States still smoke. 

“Most indicate they want to quit,” said Jeff Stein, an addiction researcher and assistant professor with Virginia Tech’s Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC. “But knowing that smoking affects your health isn’t enough to motivate people. The future is just too abstract and often doesn’t feel real.”

If it’s a choice between the immediately rewarding effects of smoking and being able to avoid lung cancer, heart disease, and emphysema, Stein said, too many people are choosing smoking. 

But what if they could coach themselves to put more value on the long-term health benefits of quitting? Stein aims to find out in a study funded by a grant from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health.