Influence of smoking cessation after diagnosis of early stage lung cancer on prognosis

The casual relationship with smoking and lung cancer is a well established fact. However, it was not well-known whether quitting smoking after a diagnosis of early stage lung cancer is of beneficial. A Parson and his colleagues found a correlation between smoking and prognosis in aforementioned patients. The patients who continued smoking after the diagnosis did worse than their counterparts. In this meta-analysis published in British Medical Journal, the authors concluded that:”the estimated number of deaths prevented is larger than would be expected from reduction of cardiorespiratory deaths after smoking cessation, so most of the mortality gain is likely to be due to reduced cancer progression. These findings indicate that offering smoking cessation treatment to patients presenting with early stage lung cancer may be beneficial. ^“

BMJ 2010;340:b5569