medwireNews: A prospective cohort study has shown that quitting smoking after a cancer diagnosis is associated with improved survival, with the greatest benefit observed among those who start smoking cessation treatment within 6 months.
“This study supports smoking cessation as an important early clinical intervention for patients after being diagnosed with cancer,” write the researchers in JAMA Oncology.
They highlight that although their findings are based on data from an evidence-based smoking cessation treatment program, “abstinence is the defining factor contributing to survival, regardless of how it is achieved, whether in a structured cessation program or on one’s own.”
The team continues: “Having such a program available for patients enhances the chances of quitting just as participation in evidence-based smoking cessation treatment does for all people who smoke, which can lead to a clinically meaningful survival benefit.”
The study cohort included 4526 current smokers with a diagnosis of cancer who received smoking cessation treatment between January 2006 and March 2022 in the MD Anderson Cancer Center Tobacco Research and Treatment Program (TRTP). The median age of participants was 55 years and the most common cancer diagnoses were breast (17.5%), lung (17.3%), head and neck (13.0%), hematologic (8.3%), and genitourinary (8.0%) cancer.
Paul Cinciripini, from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, USA, and co-workers found that survival over 15 years increased for participants who quit smoking at 3, 6, and 9 months, with significant hazard ratios (HRs) for death of 0.75, 0.79, and 0.85.
They also found that “[t]he largest benefit was noted among patients who entered the TRTP within 6 months of diagnosis.” Specifically, survival at the 75th percentile increased from 2.1 years for patients who continued to smoke (nonabstainers) to 3.9 years for those who quit (abstainers).
The findings were similar but less pronounced when smoking cessation treatment was initiated within 6 months to 5 years of cancer diagnosis, with survival at the 75th percentile of 4.8 and 6.0 years, respectively.
But there was no significant difference in survival between abstainers and nonabstainers if smoking cessation treatment was started more than 15 years after the cancer diagnosis.
“An important clinical implication from this study is that providing a structured smoking cessation program at the time of a cancer diagnosis that is integrated with cancer care can have a demonstrable positive association with life expectancy for patients,” conclude Cinciripini and colleagues.
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