Hello there. The throat infection is usually caused by a bacterial or a viral infection. And smoking hinders in the healing of the damaged tissue after infection. Therefore it takes a lot of time to heal in smokers. As far as the chances of cancer is concerned, I would say yes, but you don't always have a throat infection all the time do you? Throat infections come and go. I suggest you decrease the number of smokes per day and gradually leave it all together. The benefits of not smoking are way too many to list here. I hope this helps and hope you will take your first step towards quitting smoking. Regards