A new University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center study highlights the success of the largest-ever quality improvement initiative to focus on the critically important issue of smoking among cancer patients. The study, led by UK Markey Cancer Center researcher Jessica Burris, Ph.D.
, and published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology Nov. 19, analyzed outcomes from the American College of Surgeons' (ACS) "Just Ask" quality improvement program . The initiative, led by Timothy Mullett, M.
D., Markey Cancer Center surgeon and former chair of the ACS Commission on Cancer, was implemented at 762 cancer care facilities nationwide—making it the largest effort of its kind to improve smoking assessment and documentation in cancer care settings. The study found that programs participating in Just ASK improved their rates of assessing and documenting patients' smoking status, with the assessment rate increasing to nearly 92% by the end of the one-year program.
Smoking among patients diagnosed with cancer is associated with treatment-related complications plus cancer recurrence, poor survival and increased treatment costs. Despite these risk factors , nearly 25% of new patients with cancer and 16% of cancer survivors report current smoking. Smoking assessment, or "just asking" is an important first step in helping patients with cancer access evidence-based smoking cessation treatment, which can improve their cancer treatment outcomes, says Burris, co-leader of Markey's Cancer Prevention an.