NEW evidence shows that women can reverse pre cancerous changes in their cervixes by quitting smoking. Cigarette smoking has been, long associated with a higher, risk of cervical cancer but researchers have not known whether the smoking itself leads to the cancer or whether smokers are more likely to have other lifestyle factors which increase their risk of the disease. Researchers with the Imperial Cancer Research "Fund asked 82 women smokers with early cervical abnormalities which can lead to cancer to try to give up smoking for six months. Seventeen managed to stop completely, and a further 11 reduced the amount they smoked by three quarters. After just six months, more than 80 per cent of those who had quit or cut down on smoking showed a reduction in the size of the abnormal lesion on their cervix. This compared with less than 20 per cent in the case of women who continued to smoke.