Men with prostate cancer who smoke significantly increase their chances of dying of the disease, a study has found.

Researchers also linked smoking at the time of diagnosis and aggressive tumours.

Study leader Stacey Kenfield, from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, US, said: “We found similar results for both prostate cancer recurrence and prostate cancer mortality.

“These data taken together provide further support that smoking may increase risk of prostate cancer progression.”

The research, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, is the largest investigation to date looking at the effects of smoking on prostate cancer.

More than 5,300 men diagnosed with prostate cancer between 1986 and 2006 took part in the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study.

Men with prostate cancer who were current smokers had a 61 per cent increased risk of dying from the disease compared with non-smokers. They had a similarly increased risk of recurring cancer.

Smoking was associated with more aggressive disease at diagnosis. Among those diagnosed with cancer which had not yet spread, smokers had an 80% increased risk of dying.

But the study also found that prostate cancer death rates for former smokers matched those of non-smokers after they had quit for 10 or more years.

The same was true for men who had quit for less than 10 years, but were previously only moderate smokers.