5-year outcomes of lungcast: ‘Smoking cessation in lung cancer study’

Introduction: Our UK prospective study of 2751 patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) showed that both smoking status at diagnosis and especially stopping smoking, were independently and significantly associated with better survival at 2 years1 and that smoking cessation is cost-effective.2

Objective: To compare longer-term (5 year+) outcomes.

Design: We sought additional ethical approval to check vital status after a minimum of 5 years, in a subgroup of 526 participants (mean age 71 years, 54% male) from within our Health Board, that were recruited into LungCast between 2010–2020.

Methods: Smoking status was assessed at 1, 3, 6, 12, 24, 60 months (confirmed by eCO) from date of diagnosis. Kaplan-Meier analysis and log-logistic models estimated the effects of smoking status at baseline and quitting on long-term survival.

Results: 1. The 7% with NSCLC who had never smoked lived longer than the 55% who were ex-smokers (p=0.02) and the 37% who were smoking at baseline (p=0.02) but this was not statistically significant on multivariate analysis (p=0.06 and p=0.21 respectively) after accounting for age, treatment (surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy), cancer stage and ECOG performance status.