Data from nearly 6000 smokers with cancer show that it may be easier to predict who will stop smoking than was previously thought. It is often important to get cancer patients to quit smoking, but it is not always that easy. Data suggest that between 15 and 60 per cent of people who smoked before they were diagnosed with cancer continue to smoke after their diagnosis.
It is crucial to help people with cancer quit smoking, because it will lead to better cancer treatment prognoses, prevent secondary cancer, and increase quality of life." Rubén Rodríguez-Cano, associate professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU's) Department of Psychology Degree of addiction Because smoking and cancer often go hand-in-hand, it is especially useful to determine how addicted people are to smoking. That makes it possible to estimate how likely it is that people will manage to quit, and consequently predict cancer patients' chances of surviving.
The researchers may also be able to use a similar approach to estimate the risk that smokers who are still healthy have of developing cancer at a later date. "We are currently conducting another study on the risk of developing lung cancer , which is being led by Professor Oluf Dimitri Røe. Among the variables are nicotine addiction, smoking history and BMI," says Rodríguez-Cano.
However, investigating smoking addiction requires considerable resources. Therefore, Rodríguez-Cano wanted to find out whether there is a more ef.