Quitting Smoking May Improve Cancer Patients’ Health and Treatment Outcomes

 

 

Behind the Cancer Headlines®

July 30, 2003

 

 

Cancer patients who smoke cigarettes have more complications and lower survival rates than nonsmoking patients, according to a new study. The study also finds cancer patients who quit smoking experience immediate health benefits, and may also improve the outcome of their treatment. The authors of the study say a diagnosis of cancer often provides an impetus for a smoker to quit and that health providers should use the opportunity to help them succeed.

 

"The current findings provide an ethical imperative to all healthcare providers to address tobacco use with cancer patients and provide assistance to facilitate tobacco abstinence," report the authors of the paper, which reviews available evidence on smoking cessation and nicotine dependence treatment in patients with cancer. The findings were published in the journal Cancer.

 

Until now, limited attention has been given to cancer patients' tobacco use and nicotine dependence and the ways healthcare providers can address these issues. To provide a clearer understanding of the available research, a team led by Lisa Sanderson Cox of the Lombardi Cancer Center of Georgetown University, reviewed the current literature and synthesized their findings.

 

Although some health care providers may feel that quitting smoking is an unreasonable goal for patients who are also fighting cancer, the literature suggests that cancer patients are motivated to stop smoking and can benefit from intervention by health care providers. Even brief interventions can have an impact on smoking abstinence, though intensive interventions produce higher success rates and are more cost effective.

 

The authors also found that treatment of nicotine dependence facilitates smoking cessation. They suggest that health care providers consider offering smokers pharmacotherapies, including nicotine replacement, as they do not present known health risks and may facilitate long-term abstinence.

 

Further research is needed to determine the most effective intervention to aid tobacco abstinence and the health benefits for smoking cessation for cancer patients. Research is also needed to understand the effect of pharmacotherapy on cancer patients' symptoms, since physiological and behavioral effects from nicotine withdrawal could exacerbate the physical side effects of cancer treatment.

 

Despite the uncertainties, the authors concluded that, "the health risks of continued smoking and the clear benefits of stopping smoking provide an ethical imperative for treating nicotine dependence in cancer patients. Evidence that cancer patients are motivated and able to stop smoking supports the use of tobacco use treatment interventions within this patient population."

 

 

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Cancer, August 1, 2003