Lung cancer reality may help kin quit smoking

By Anne Harding

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – A Duke physician is hoping that
coping with a loved one’s lung cancer will offer a “teachable
moment” that helps smokers quit for good.

“This could be a time when they really would think about
quitting smoking because they see the consequences in real
life,” Dr. Lori Bastian, an internist at Duke University
Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, told Reuters Health.

But while patients’ relatives have told Bastian and her
colleagues that they’re thinking about quitting, they also say
it’s the worst possible time to try, given the stress and
anxiety of caring for a sick relative.

With this in mind, Bastian and her team have designed a
telephone counseling program consisting of six half-hour
sessions offered over 12 weeks that includes instruction on
skills for coping with stress, such as relaxation techniques
and guided imagery.

“These are things that people could do in the car, while
they’re waiting in the doctor’s office, all those kinds of
things,” Bastian said.

The researchers are identifying participants for their
study by asking lung cancer patients being treated at Duke, the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Durham VA
Medical Center whether they have a relative who smokes who
would be willing to try to quit.

Study participants are given brochures and a cassette with
information on the dangers of smoking and advice on quitting,
along with nicotine patches. Half of them will also receive the
counseling sessions.

Bastian and her team hope to enroll 480 people in the
study, and have signed up 340 so far. Participants will be
followed for one year after the 12-week program, and
self-reports of smoking cessation success will be checked with
saliva tests.

Bastian and her colleagues have found just 15 percent of
smokers give up cigarettes when a relative is diagnosed with
lung cancer. They are hoping that the program could bring that
percentage up to 30 percent or 40 percent.

“Overall our feedback has been good,” Bastian said. “We’re
hopeful.”