ABSTRACT BACKGROUND: Smoking is the major risk factor for development of bladder cancer (BC). We evaluated the rate and the time of cessation of smoking in patients with BC and analysed the effect of ongoing smoking at recurrence and progression. METHODS: All patients were informed at the time of BC diagnosis about the correlation between smoking and BC and strictly warned to quit smoking. The demographic properties, pathologic characteristics and smoking status of the patients were evaluated retrospectively. Both the patients and the family members were questioned to evaluate the smoking status of the patient during the follow-up period. The disease recurrence and progression was correlated with the habitual attitude of patients in terms of smoking status. RESULTS: A total of 245 patients were included to the study. The mean follow-up period was 37.3±27.8 months (7-143 months). There were 102(41.6%) patients who were smoker and 143(58.4%) patients who were non-smoker at the time of diagnosis. Among the smoker patients, 34(33.3%) stopped smoking after the diagnosis of BC. The median smoking cessation time was 1.5 months and 64.7% of these patients stopped smoking in the first six months after the diagnosis. The Cox regression model did not show any relationship between the smoking status and recurrence/progression. CONCLUSION: The rate of cessation of smoking at BC patients was low. The first months of the diagnosis were the most suitable period for the patients to stop smoking. The smoking status after the diagnosis was not related with the tumor recurrence and progression.