Integrated Care Boosts Smoking Cessation When Undergoing Lung Cancer Screening

FRIDAY, Jan. 17, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Integrated care (IC) involving medication and intensive counseling provides the best opportunity for smoking cessation in the context of lung cancer screening (LCS), according to a study published online Jan. 13 in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Paul M. Cinciripini, Ph.D., from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, and colleagues evaluated the efficacy of three tobacco treatment strategies in the LCS setting. The analysis included 630 participants randomly assigned to quitline (QL; including 12-week nicotine replacement therapy [NRT]), QL plus 12-week NRT or pharmacotherapy (QL+), or IC (12-week NRT or prescription pharmacotherapy and counseling).

The researchers found that at three months, 25.2 percent in QL, 27.1 percent in QL+, and 37.1 percent in IC reported abstinence. IC performed better than both QL (odds ratio, 1.75) and QL+ (odds ratio, 1.58). IC maintained the highest rate of abstinence at six months, with 32.4 percent, followed by QL+ at 27.6 percent, and QL at 20.5 percent (IC versus QL: odds ratio, 1.86). IC showed a higher probability of positive absolute risk differences (ARDs) in abstinence at three months versus QL (ARD, 0.12) in the Bayesian analysis with 99 percent probability of positive ARD and versus QL+ (ARD, 0.10) with 98 percent probability of positive ARD. At six months, this advantage was maintained with ARDs of 0.12 versus QL (probability of positive ARD, 99 percent) and 0.05 versus QL+ (probability of positive ARD, 86 percent).

“The superior performance of the IC model underscores the value of integrated, comprehensive approaches to smoking cessation in the LCS setting, which could be an important consideration when referring patients for screening,” the authors write.

Several authors disclosed ties to relevant organizations.

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