In findings published today on bmj.com, scientists suggest that offering smoking cessation treatment as part of early stage lung cancer patients’ therapy could be valuable.
Researchers undertook the first ever review of studies that measure the effects of continued smoking after diagnosis of lung cancer. There is an established link between smoking and lung cancer; indeed lifelong smokers have a 20-fold increased risk compared with non-smokers. However, until now scientists have not known if cessation on diagnosis can improve prognosis.
Ms Amanda Parsons, Research fellow at the University of Birmingham, explains, “We found that people who continued to smoke after a diagnosis of early stage lung cancer had a substantially higher risk of death and a greater risk of the tumour returning compared with those who stopped smoking at that time. The data suggests that most of the increased risk of death was due to cancer progression.”
The team found that about twice as many quitters would survive for five years compared with continuing smokers, with a five year survival rate of 63-70% among quitters compared with 29-33% among those who continued to smoke.
Ms Parsons says: “The key message here is that it is never too late to give up smoking, benefits can be seen even when you have been diagnosed with lung cancer. Our review suggests that continued smoking may affect the behaviour of a lung tumour and that smoking cessation for those with early stage lung cancer can make a real impact on survival rates. The next goal for our research is to test the effect of a smoking cessation intervention in this population in a large scale clinical trial. ”
Ends
Notes to Editors
Influence of smoking cessation after diagnosis of early stage lung cancer on prognosis: systematic review of observational studies with meta-analysis A Parsons, research fellow, A Daley, senior lecturer, NIHR career scientist, R Begh, research associate, P Aveyard, clinical reader, NIHR career scientist is published on bmj.com on Friday 22nd January 2010
Further Media Information
Amanda Parsons is available for interview, please contact Anna Mitchell on 0121 414 6029 / 07920 593946
