Quitting Smoking Early Linked to Lower Mortality After NSCLC Diagnosis

For ever smokers, log2-transformed years since smoking cessation before diagnosis associated with significantly lower mortality

By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter

FRIDAY, May 5, 2023 (HealthDay News) — For patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), quitting smoking early is associated with lower mortality following diagnosis, according to a study published online May 5 in JAMA Network Open.

Xinan Wang, Ph.D., from the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, and colleagues characterized the association of years since smoking cessation before diagnosis and cumulative smoking pack-years with overall survival among patients with NSCLC. Data were included for 5,594 patients with NSCLC: 14.2, 59.1, and 26.7 percent were never smokers, former smokers, and current smokers, respectively.

The researchers found that mortality was increased for former smokers and current smokers compared with never smokers (hazard ratios, 1.26 and 1.68, respectively). Among ever smokers, there was an association for log₂-transformed years since smoking cessation before diagnosis with significantly lower mortality (hazard ratio, 0.96). In a subgroup analysis stratified by clinical stage at diagnosis, among patients with early-stage disease, overall survival was even shorter for former and current smokers.

“To better inform treatment selection and to improve lung cancer prognosis, detailed smoking history should be collected and studied further in conjunction with molecular and genomic biomarkers in future epidemiological and clinical studies,” the authors write.

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