Many patients diagnosed with lung cancer continue smoking

PanARMENIAN.Net - Many patients diagnosed with lung cancer - as well as their family caregivers - continue to smoke even though doing so may jeopardize their recovery and long-term health outcome, says a study sponsored by the U.S. National Cancer Institute.

Researchers report that nearly one in five recently diagnosed lung cancer patients continues to light up, which can make them feel guilty or socially stigmatized.

The findings point to the need for family support, counseling and medication to help patients and/or family caregivers overcome their addiction and adopt healthy lifestyle choices.

The researchers looked at 742 cancer patients and caregivers at multiple sites and found that 18 percent of smokers with lung cancer failed to quit after their diagnosis. Smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer.

Among a subset of smokers with colorectal cancer, which is not strongly associated with tobacco use, 12 percent of the patients continued smoking.

An even higher proportion of the patients' family caregivers also kept on smoking - 25 percent of those caring for lung cancer patients and 20 percent of those caring for colorectal cancer patients, the researchers found.

Most of the caregivers were middle-aged females and were often spouses of the patients. In some cases, both the patient and the caregiver continued smoking, the researchers say, HealthDay News reported.