A connection between smoking and the bodies response to melanoma, most commonly caused by exposure to the sun, has not been previously found.
The immune response of smokers appears to work, but is less effective, researchers at the University of Leeds said.
They stressed the importance of people dropping the habit, especially if they are fighting the skin cancer, which has shown to be on the rise in the UK in recent years.
Professor Julia Newton-Bishop, lead author of the Cancer Research UK-funded study, said: 'The immune system is like an orchestra, with multiple pieces.
'This research suggests that smoking might disrupt how it works together in tune, allowing the musicians to continue playing but possibly in a more disorganised way.'
The study used data from more than 700 patients with melanoma, which takes the lives of 2,000 in the UK every year, and 9,000 in the US.
The research, published in the journal Cancer Research, found that people who have smoked have a 40 per cent lower survival rate.
People who had any history of smoking were found to be at greater risk of dying of melanoma – they do not have to be smokers at the time of their illness.
However the researchers did not specify how many cigarettes would impact a person's health.
The smokers and past smokers were compared to people who had never been hooked on cigarettes.
In a small group of 156 patients who appeared to have genetically better immune systems, smokers were around four-and-a-half times less likely to survive than non-smokers.
Given that reduced survival was found to be greatest for smokers in the group with most indicators of immune cells, the researchers think that smoking could directly affect how smokers' bodies deal with the melanoma cancer cells.
However, due to the study design, they cannot prove that smoking was the cause in the drop in survival.
Professor Newton-Bishop said: 'The result is that smokers could still mount an immune response to try and destroy the melanoma, but it appears to have been less effective than in never-smokers, and smokers were less likely to survive their cancer.
'Based on these findings, stopping smoking should be strongly recommended for people diagnosed with melanoma.'
Dr Julia Sharp, head of health information at Cancer Research UK, said: 'Overall, these results show that smoking could limit the chances of melanoma patients' survival so it's especially important that they are given all the support possible to give up smoking for good.'