Current smokers have lower odds of obtaining screening for breast, cervical and colorectal cancer, according to a study from the universities of Stanford and Chicago published online in BMJ Open, reports HealthDay News. But former smokers sought cancer screening more often than people who had never smoked.
Victor A Eng from Stanford University School of Medicine in California and colleagues conducted a prospective cohort study based on questionnaire responses from 89,058 postmenopausal women from the Women’s Health Initiative Observational Study.
The association between smoking history and cancer screening rates or staging of cancer diagnoses was examined, said the HealthDay News article published on 17 August 2020.
The study
The researchers found that 52.8%, 40.8% and 6.37% of the women were never smokers, former smokers and current smokers, respectively.
Compared with never smokers, current smokers had lower odds of obtaining breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer screening during 8.8 years of follow-up (odds ratios, 0.55, 0.53, and 0.71, respectively). Compared with never smokers, former smokers were more likely to receive regular screening services.
Among current smokers, failure to adhere to screening guidelines resulted in diagnoses at higher cancer stages for breast and colorectal cancer (odds ratios, 2.78 and 2.26, respectively).
“Concern for personal health is the most common reason given for smoking cessation among former smokers and may explain why this health-conscious population seeks cancer screening more frequently than never smokers,” the authors write.
“On the contrary, smokers are overly optimistic about their health and consistently underestimate the magnitude of their cancer risk.”
The association between cigarette smoking, cancer screening, and cancer stage: a prospective study of the women’s health initiative observational cohort
BMJ Journals, Public health. Volume 10, Issue 8. Published on 13 August 2020.
Authors
Victor A Eng, Sean P David, Shufeng Li, Mina S Ally, Marcia Stefanick and Jean Y Tang.
The authors are from the departments of Dermatology and of Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine, and the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine.
Abstract
Objective
To assess the dose-dependent relationship between smoking history and cancer screening rates or staging of cancer diagnoses.
Design
Prospective, population-based cohort study.
Setting
Questionnaire responses from the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) Observational Study.
Participants
89 058 postmenopausal women.
Outcome measures
Logistic regression models were used to assess the odds of obtaining breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer screening as stratified by smoking status. The odds of late-stage cancer diagnoses among patients with adequate vs inadequate screening as stratified by smoking status were also calculated.
Results
Of the 89 058 women who participated, 52.8% were never smokers, 40.8% were former smokers, and 6.37% were current smokers.
Over an average of 8.8 years of follow-up, current smokers had lower odds of obtaining breast (OR 0.55; 95% CI 0.51 to 0.59), cervical (OR 0.53; 95% CI 0.47 to 0.59), and colorectal cancer (OR 0.71; 95% CI 0.66 to 0.76) screening compared with never smokers.
Former smokers were more likely than never smokers to receive regular screening services. Failure to adhere to screening guidelines resulted in diagnoses at higher cancer stages among current smokers for breast cancer (OR 2.78; 95% CI 1.64 to 4.70) and colorectal cancer (OR 2.26; 95% CI 1.01 to 5.05).
Conclusions
Active smoking is strongly associated with decreased use of cancer screening services and more advanced cancer stage at the time of diagnosis. Clinicians should emphasise the promotion of both smoking cessation and cancer screening for this high-risk group.
[link url="https://www.docwirenews.com/docwire-pick/smokers-less-likely-to-receive-breast-cervical-crc-screening/"]Smokers Less Likely to Receive Breast, Cervical, CRC Screening[/link]
[link url="https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/10/8/e037945"]The association between cigarette smoking, cancer screening, and cancer stage: a prospective study of the women’s health initiative observational cohort[/link]
Smokers Less Likely to Receive Breast, Cervical, CRC Screening
The association between cigarette smoking, cancer screening, and cancer stage: a prospective study of the women’s health initiative observational cohort
https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/10/8/e037945