An article on “It is never too late to stop smoking. Applying working estimates of smoking cessation on five year survival gains after a cancer diagnosis” was published today in Cancer Epidemiology.
This work, led by ICFHS A/Prof Freddy Sitas, was done in collaboration with Seoul National University, South Korea and Tohoku University, Japan. Estimates show that for a cancer with a high survival rate, patients can gain up to two years of median survival if they quit smoking. These gains are similar to other standard cancer treatments. Every encounter with a patient should provide an opportunity for preventive health promotion, especially as regards smoking cessation. This data should empower clinicians to initiate point-of-care discussions with their patients. This information should also empower hospital systems to provide basic ‘duty of care’ by collecting smoking information properly at reception with an automatic referral to a GP and Quitline on the patients’ discharge summary.