The following is an introduction to an Editor’s Choice article in the Journal of Thoracic Oncology (JTO).

Quitting Smoking At or Around Diagnosis Improves the Overall Survival of Lung Cancer Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis – Caini, et al.

Smoking is known to be the leading cause of lung cancer worldwide. Thus, there are several initiatives to curb smoking in populations globally, as a sound public health policy to reduce the burden of lung cancer.

In decades past, smoking cessation in patients with lung cancer was not seen as a high priority, because these individuals had already developed cancer. However, data have accumulated from several studies indicating that lung cancer patients who continued to smoke have a worse outcome.

In this issue of the journal, Caini and colleagues present a meta-analysis of over 10,000 patients culled from 21 articles examining whether quitting smoking at or around the time of diagnosis of lung cancer improves overall survival.

In spite of the heterogenous nature of the studies examined, this analysis demonstrated that quitting smoking at or around the time of lung cancer diagnosis was associated with a significant improvement in overall survival, regardless of histological subtype.

You can read this article (and download it as a pdf document) here. 

This article amplifies many points raised in the GLCC Factsheet on Smoking Cessation, which you can read (and download as a pdf) here. 

Dr. Warren and colleagues discuss the significance of these findings in an excellent accompanying editorial, which you can read here.