Clinical Significance of Smoking Cessation in Subjects With Cancer: A 30-Year Review

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Despite the established causal relationship between tobacco smoking and cancer, many cancer patients continue to smoke after diagnosis. This partly reflects ignorance of the beneficial effects of smoking cessation, even after diagnosis. The aim of this study was to demonstrate the effects of continuing or quitting smoking in patients with diagnosed cancer. METHODS: The study was based on a review of medical databases (PubMed Central, MEDLINE, Cochrane Library) in the last 30 y. All articles included in the present analysis were in English. RESULTS: In subjects with early-stage lung cancer, continued smoking after diagnosis is associated with an increased risk of all-cause mortality and decreased survival. Research has demonstrated significant differences in actuarial overall survival favoring the non-smoking group among subjects with lung cancer. In subjects with oral cancer, smoking cessation or reduction leads to a significant reduction in mortality. There is also evidence that tobacco smoking aggravates and prolongs radiotherapyinduced complications. Of particular importance is evidence that continued smoking is associated with adverse effects during anti-cancer treatment. Smoking promotes tumor progression and increases resistance to chemotherapy due to nicotine-induced resistance to apoptosis by modulating mitochondrial signaling. Continued smoking is also related to inferior outcomes of treatment with novel targeted therapies such as erlotinib. Smoking in subjects with gastric and lung cancer is also associated with an increased risk of developing second primary tumors. Quitting smoking after lung cancer diagnosis is associated with a better performance status, whereas persistent smokers have worse overall quality of life. Subjects who continue to smoke despite being diagnosed with cancer report more severe pain than subjects who have never smoked and greater pain-related functional impairment. CONCLUSIONS: Continued smoking after cancer diagnosis is related to reduced treatment efficacy and reduced survival, increased risk for second primary malignancies, and deterioration of quality of life.

Prevalence, trends, patterns and associations of analgesic use in Germany

“…Similar to other studies, smoking was associated with a high prevalence of analgesic use [41, 46, 47]. This could be due to the fact that smoking is strongly associated with having more pain [48, 49]. We also observed a significant association between obesity and consuming more prescribed analgesics.…”

Treating nicotine dependence and preventing smoking relapse in cancer patients

“…A recent study reported that, similar to depression, greater daily pain ratings were associated with lower likelihood of cessation attempts and greater use of nicotine among cancer patients [Aigner, 2016]. Additionally, continued smoking following a cancer diagnosis was associated with higher levels of pain among cancer patients, compared to former and non-smokers [Daniel, 2009; Florou, 2014]. Previous research studies have identified tobacco addiction to be a risk factor for chronic pain among general population [Shiri, 2010; Sugiyama, 2010].…”

Correlates of smoking status in cancer survivors

“…Smoking cessation carries numerous benefits, even after a cancer diagnosis, including a greater response to cancer treatment [1, 9, 10] and reduced risk of mortality [1, 3, 9]. Cancer survivors who continue to smoke are at a higher risk than non-smoking survivors for secondary primary cancers as well as a wide range of other conditions causally associated with smoking, including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, impaired iimnune function, rheumatoid arthritis, dental disease, pain-related impairment, and more [1, 11]. Given the large population of cancer survivors who smoke and the importance of smoking cessation in tins population, a critical need exists to understand both the barriers and facilitators of smoking cessation in tins very high risk population, particularly since conventional behavioral and pharmacologic smoking cessation programs are not effective at increasing the smoking cessation in cancer survivors [12].…”