Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine
37 Smoking and Cancer Types: A Comparative Study of Knowledge and Risk Perception
Ciana Carr and Ursula Martinez-Pradeda
Faculy Mentor: Ursula Martinez-Pradeda (Family & Preventative Medicine, University of Utah)
In addition to lung cancer, smoking causes cancer of the larynx, oral cavity and pharynx, esophagus, pancreas, bladder, stomach, colon and rectum, and liver. Continued smoking after a cancer diagnosis has been associated with multiple negative health consequences, regardless of the cancer type. For example, cancer patients who smoke have an increased risk of cancer recurrence, development of a second cancer, treatments not being as effective, and lower survival. Studies have shown that patients with cancers that are widely known to be caused by smoking (i.e., lung, head and neck) are more motivated to quit smoking than those with cancers not typically perceived as smoking related (e.g., melanoma) (1). The difference in smoking cessation motivation is due to varying reasons among different types of cancer (2). Patients with a cancer that is not obviously caused by smoking may not understand the risks smoking has for their cancer treatment and prognosis (3). About one third of cancer patients continued to smoke after their cancer diagnosis (3). Therefore, it is important to motivate and encourage cancer patients to quit smoking, especially those with cancers that are not typically associated with smoking.
In this study, we conducted a secondary analysis using data from an NCI R03 award that aimed to develop an intervention to increase the motivation to quit smoking among patients with cancers that are not typically perceived as smoking related (i.e., breast, bladder, colorectal, GYN, melanoma). The goal of the study was to compare the use of smoking cessation products and the knowledge of risk of continued smoking after diagnosis among patients with a smoking-related cancer (i.e., bladder and colorectal) and patients with a non-smoking related cancer (i.e., melanoma, breast, and gynecological).
Participants were current smokers (individuals who reported smoking at least one cigarette in the past 30 days), who had received a diagnosis of bladder, melanoma, breast, gynecological, or colorectal cancer within the past six months. Other inclusion criteria were ability to read/write in English, able to give informed consent, not currently enrolled in a smoking cessation program, and not having a prior cancer diagnosis except for non-melanoma skin cancer.
Patients completed surveys assessing the following variables: demographic and cancer-related variables (e.g., sex, race, ethnicity, marital status, cancer type, stage). We used the Cancer Patient Tobacco Use Questionnaire (4, 5) to assess smoking behavior after the cancer diagnosis and the Fagerstrom Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND) (6) to assess nicotine dependence. The Perception of Risk (POR) questionnaire (7) assessed the patients’ perceived risk of c