Is the diagnosis of lung cancer effective in decision of smoking cessation period?

Purpose: Lung cancer is one of the most common cancers worldwide and smoking plays an important role in the development of lung cancer. The study aims to determine the impact of a lung cancer diagnosis on the period of smoking habits. Also, we aimed to find out the factors affecting smoking cessation in patients after being diagnosed with lung cancer. Materials and Methods: Our study is a descriptive study with 410 patients diagnosed with lung cancer and who had a history of smoking in a training and research hospital in Izmir between April and December 2018. The sociodemographic characteristics of the patients, smoking history, smoking status after the diagnosis, the duration of smoking cessation after the diagnosis, the relationship between smoking and lung cancer disease were investigated. Results: The mean age of the participants was 60.41 +/- 14.85 and 62.7% of the patients were male. Quitting smoking rate was significantly increased and the number of cigarettes smoked daily was decreased after the diagnosis of lung cancer. The rate of quitting smoking after the diagnosis was higher in male patients compared to female patients and the smoking cessation rate was found to be higher in employees. The smoking cessation rate of those who do not use alcohol is significantly higher. The smoking cessation rate was higher in the first year after the diagnosis of lung cancer. Conclusions: This study showed that the majority of the patients had quit smoking after the diagnosis of lung cancer.