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Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, and San Francisco General Hospital Medical Center had 20 healthy adult smokers smoke their usual brand for a week and then had them undergo a six-week regimen of smoking cigarettes with progressively decreased nicotine content.

At the end of the six weeks, the study participants were free to return to their usual commercial cigarette brand. Most did, but the study -- published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention -- found 25 percent of the smokers quit smoking while the study was in progress.

In addition, when tested one month later, the study subjects who were still lighting up were smoking about 40 percent fewer cigarettes per day, with a comparable reduction in nicotine intake, compared to when the study began, the researchers said.

Tobacco company products market low-nicotine alternatives, but they do not change the level of nicotine taken in by smokers, study leader Dr. Neal Benowitz said.

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