Author of

• 10997

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  P1.23 - Poster Session 1 - Tobacco Control, Prevention and Chemoprevention (ID 162)

  • Event: WCLC 2013
  • Type: Poster Session
  • Track: Prevention & Epidemiology
  • Presentations: 1
  • Moderators:
  • Coordinates: 10/28/2013, 09:30 - 16:30, Exhibit Hall, Ground Level

  • 10998

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    P1.23-001 - The real role of health care professionals in providing smoking cessation counselling among lung cancer patients: preliminary data (ID 1051)

    09:30 - 16:30  |  Author(s): S. Vallone
    • Abstract

    Background
    According to the World Health Organization, one hundred million deaths were caused by tobacco in the 20th century and the expectation for 2030 is equal to 10 million deaths. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death and in the United States cigarette smoking is responsible for an estimated 90% of all lung cancers. About 50% of lung cancer patients are current smokers at the time of diagnosis and 11 to 48% of all smokers continue to smoke. Parsons et al. in a review of 10 studies suggest that smoking cessation after early stage lung cancer diagnosis improves prognostic outcomes and, despite evidences that smoking cessation is related with more effective treatment, reduced chemotherapy and radiotherapy toxicities and a better prognosis, the belief prevails that treating tobacco dependence is less important than the other therapeutic approaches.

    Methods
    122 lung cancer patients referring to the Thoracic Oncology Unit of the S. Luigi Hospital in Orbassano – Italy (31% of the total number of patients referring to this center in this period of time) were prospectively and sequentially evaluated from 02/01/2013 to 30/05/2013. In order to collect data, a dedicated 15 question-anonymous survey was developed with the aim to understand if smoker or former smoker patients had received information by health professionals, about smoking cessation before or after the diagnosis, which reaction they had and which actions were adopted for quitting smoking.

    Results
    The median age of participants was 65 years or more, 75% were men, 25% women. 27% were smokers, 73% former smokers. Among active smokers, most patients (87.8%) reduced the number of cigarettes after being diagnosed. 45.4% of patients report not to have received information on smoking cessation by the healthcare professionals and among patients who received it, the majority (84.2%) declared a good or very good ability of health workers to understand the difficulty of quitting smoking. About 76% considers positively the action of health care providers and a little percentage reports a warning and paternalistic attitude of them. 67.7% of patients who attempted to quit smoking, state the sudden termination as the most effective measure, more than the gradual reduction of cigarettes. Analyzing anti-smoking techniques or therapies adopted, most patients declare not to resort to such methods: only 25% started using electronic cigarettes, 5.5% has used a nicotine replacement treatment, 4.1% is attending an antismoking clinic.

    Conclusion
    The analysis of the study results underline that most lung cancer patients are interested in smoking cessation programs and although many of them receive advice and assistance by healthcare workers, the recourse to the use of techniques, drugs or access to specific clinic is very low. In Italy there are few centers offering counseling for smoking cessation, while in UK, Norway and Netherlands innovative interventions are available and oncology nurses are essential in the identification of and intervention with patients who struggle with this dependence. This is a pivotal experience and other Italian and Spanish centers are already been involved in the questionnaire collection to get more complete and heterogeneous results