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Lung cancer patients who quit smoking upon diagnosis live an average of two years longer than those who continue to smoke, according to one study.
The researchers hope patients realize that it is not too late to potentially extend their lives.
In the United States, many cancer centers offer proven strategies to quit smoking: advice over the phone, patches and nicotine pills that relieve the urge to smoke.
More and more oncologists are talking to their patients about quitting smoking.
Researchers from the International Agency for Research on Cancer, the cancer agency of the World Health Organization, conducted the study in Moscow, Russia.
WHO researchers have found that lung cancer patients who quit smoking can live up to two years longer than those who continue to smoke
They recruited 517 adults in the early stages of a diagnosis of lung cancer.
For an average of seven years each, participants were regularly interviewed by the research team to determine how often they smoked and other medical and lifestyle changes that might have occurred.
Researchers found that 45% of people diagnosed with lung cancer quit smoking, and those who lived longer, lived longer without lung cancer and had more time to die by almost two years.
The effect was maintained regardless of the stage of the tumor, how much the patient smoked or how long after the diagnosis stopped, researchers reported in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.
“It’s a huge effect,” said Dr Mahdi Sheikh, who led the study for the World Health Organization’s cancer research agency in Lyon, France.
In lung cancer, he said, quitting smoking is “as necessary as the treatments.”
“Doctors at every visit should encourage their lung cancer patients to quit smoking,” Sheikh said.
For some patients, the shock of a cancer diagnosis can be very motivating.
“It’s the main reason I’ve ever had in my life to quit,” said Preston Browning, an electrician in Ridgetop, Tennessee, who quit smoking last month while recovering from a cancer surgery.
Browning, now 20, had smoked a pack a day since he was 14. He credits the anti-smoking drug Chantix and the support of tobacco treatment specialists at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center.
Nurse Lesa Abney listened to Browning’s reasons for smoking – he described smoking as a “time for me” and a “little reward” – and suggested strategies he could use: eat breakfast at the restaurant. place to light every morning. Take a toothpick after lunch. Treat yourself to dessert.
“Without Lesa I think it would have been more difficult,” said Browning.
Browning had sarcoma in his leg, a rare cancer of unknown cause.
Preston Browning (pictured), 20, of Ridgetop, Tennessee, who is recovering from cancer surgery, quit smoking with help from the Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center. He says cancer is “the number one reason I have never had in my life to quit smoking”.
In contrast, lung cancer is largely linked to tobacco use, so smokers can experience shame, hopelessness and hopelessness after diagnosis, experts say.
It can be good news to hear from doctors that they too can benefit from stopping smoking.
A $ 27 million National Cancer Institute program is helping 53 cancer centers integrate tobacco treatment into care.
It has affected more than 50,000 patients since 2018.
“We have already learned a lot from this,” said director Dr Ned Sharpless.
“With relatively modest support – these aren’t huge, expensive programs – you can dramatically increase the number of patients you reach.”
The next step, he said, is to spread the know-how to smaller cancer clinics.
In California, the Stanford Cancer Institute phones patients who use tobacco for specialist support and quit smoking medications.
“If you have treatment that saves lives, it should be provided to all patients,” said Judith Prochaska, who heads the Stanford tobacco control program, which has received federal funding.
In Stanford cancer clinics, about 1 in 4 patients who accept tobacco treatment remain tobacco-free after two years, Prochaska said.
Mike Fulton, 71, a retired bank president in San Jose, Calif., Smoked a pack a day for decades before being diagnosed with throat cancer last year.
After successful radiotherapy and chemotherapy, he said, he continued to smoke cigarettes occasionally, thinking, “This is crazy. The cancer is cured, but I know I’m hurting because I can feel it. ‘
He asked for help and started weekly phone conversations with a Stanford advisor. One piece of advice he followed: make your cigarettes harder to reach.
Quitting smoking can be difficult for many, even if they know it is bad for them. Doctors strive to provide smokers with better treatment options to fight nicotine addiction
He pulled them farther and farther away, from a drawer in the bedroom.
“Finally, I put them on the roof in a gutter. To reach it, I needed a metal ladder. Which I climbed once, and took a puff from a pack that contained seven cigarettes.
“Now,” said Fulton, “they’re gone. “
Nicotine gum and a pill twice a day help relieve cravings.
In Houston, more than 1,000 patients a year at the MD Anderson Cancer Center participate in tobacco treatment, receiving counseling on their own or with medication.
It’s not enough to refer someone to a stop line, said program director Diane Beneventi
“I want all people with cancer who smoke to know that they have a lot to gain if they quit,” said Beneventi.
“It’s more important now than it has ever been in their lives.”
Browning, the Tennessee patient, had already tried to quit smoking twice. He thinks it will hold up this time.
“Smoke with cancer? I feel like it’s a tempting fate.
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