November 27, 2001
Prevention: Help for Those Willing to Kick a Habit
By ERIC NAGOURNEY
ne
might expect that smokers who decide to have themselves checked for lung cancer
with a CAT scan must also be giving some serious thought to giving up
cigarettes.
A new study suggests that this may be the case — and urges the doctors who
conduct the scans to accompany them with advice to patients about ways to quit
smoking.
Researchers from Weill Medical College of Cornell University and the
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center found that almost a quarter of smokers
surveyed six months after their scans reported having quit. Twenty-six percent
more said they cut back, the researchers report in the December issue of
Preventive Medicine.
Dr. Jamie S. Ostroff, a psychologist at Sloan-Kettering and an author of the
study, said it was unclear how much the results of the scans contributed to the
decisions to quit. But she said some smokers quit even though the scans showed
that their lungs looked healthy. The findings, she said, suggest that still
more smokers seeking scans could be led to quit with the right counseling.
"The ground here is fertile," Dr. Ostroff said, "and we know
there are proven methods to help individuals to quit."
The study looked at the experiences of 134 smokers who enrolled in the Early
Lung Cancer Action Program at Cornell. Dr. Claudia I. Henschke, a radiology
professor at Cornell and the senior author of the report, said she got the idea
for the study after some patients who had undergone the lung scans got in touch
with her and said they had given up smoking.
From the New York Times
