J. R. Barrett1, L. Cherney-Stafford1, E. Alagoz1, M. Piper2, J. Cook2, S. Campbell-Flohr2, S. M. Weber1, E. R. Winslow1, S. M. Ronnkleiv-Kelly1, D. E. Abbott1 1University Of Wisconsin,Surgical Oncology,Madison, WI, USA 2University Of Wisconsin,School Of Medicine And Public Health, Center For Tobacco Research An Intervention,Madison, WI, USA
Introduction:
The negative consequences of tobacco use during cancer treatment are well-documented, but there are no high quality, patient-level data to help us understand patient beliefs about continued smoking (versus cessation) during gastrointestinal (GI) cancer treatment. We aimed to better describe patient attitudes about smoking cessation during cancer treatment.
Methods:
We conducted semi-structured interviews with 10 patients who were active smokers being treated for GI cancers; we also interviewed 5 caregivers. All interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and uploaded to NVivo for data management and analysis. We consensus coded 10% of data inductively using conventional content analysis and developed our codebook and code descriptions. We collaboratively developed data matrices to categorize the themes regarding patient perspectives on smoking as well as presumed barriers to smoking cessation during active therapy.
Results:
Our interviews revealed three consistent themes. First, smoking cessation is not necessarily desired by many patients who have received their cancer diagnosis. Second, failure in past attempts may lead to patients feeling hopeless about future attempts, especially at such a stressful time. Third, while all patients were heavy smokers and received smoking cessation treatment throughout their life, there was little to no perceived smoking cessation treatment at the time of their cancer diagnosis.
Conclusion:
Because GI cancer patients who smoke perceive a lack of dedicated smoking cessation treatment (both counseling and pharmacologic therapy), well-designed coaching sessions educating patients—as well as providers— may be helpful in promoting healthy tobacco-free behavior during cancer treatment. However, these data also suggest that this patient population exhibits feelings of hopelessness and/or a lack of desire to quit tobacco. These realities must be considered as leaders consider dedicating valuable human and fiscal resources to smoking cessation in this population.