This Reading Room is a collaboration between MedPage Today® and:
Quitting smoking after a cancer diagnosis improves survival and other health outcomes, but many patients are never asked about their smoking status or offered help in kicking the habit. Two programs from the American College of Surgeons (ACoS) are changing that, a recent study showed.
The Just ASK program significantly increased the number of patients at participating centers who were asked about smoking. And more recently, the Beyond ASK initiative significantly increased the number of patients who were offered evidence-based help, Jessica Burris, PhD, and Graham Warren, MD, PhD, both of the University of Kentucky in Lexington, and colleagues reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Among 446,015 patients newly diagnosed with cancer, 52,794 (11.8%) were identified as smokers, of which 33,638 (63.7%) received cessation assistance. The mean assist rate increased from 48.0% at baseline in January 2023 to 67.5% by January 2024.
"The results from the Beyond ASK initiative strongly support the feasibility of robust implementation of evidence-based smoking-cessation assistance across diverse cancer care settings nationwide," the researchers concluded.
