What’s the relationship between cancer survivors’ tobacco use, symptom burden, and motivation to quit smoking?

In a recent study, current smoking and vaping were associated with a higher burden of symptoms among adult cancer survivors, but these symptoms were not related to survivors’ desire to quit smoking. The findings are published by Wiley online in Cancer, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.

Continued smoking after a cancer diagnosis lowers survival rates, increases the likelihood of additional cancers, and decreases the effectiveness of cancer therapies. Understanding the relationship between tobacco use and the symptoms that patients experience may help clinicians tailor tobacco cessation interventions for individuals with cancer.

To study this relationship, Sarah Price, PhD, of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine, and her colleagues analysed data on 1,409 adults who had a history of cancer and were participating in Wave 5 of the US FDA Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study, which gathered detailed tobacco use information from a nationally representative sample of adults from December 2018 to November 2019.