Age, Race Affect Smoking Relapse Following Surgery for NSCLC

Age at the time of surgery and race play a role in which patients may begin smoking again following surgical resection for stage I NSCLC, new research showed.

Aniket Vazirani, MD, and colleagues at Boston Medical Center conducted a study that analyzed demographic and clinical variables of all patients who had surgery from 2002 to 2016 to remove NSCLC.

They identified 168 patients, who were mostly women (60.6%) and primarily spoke English (92.8%), excluding never-smokers and patients with an inadequate smoking history. The racial makeup of patients was the following: White (64.3%), Black (27.4%), and other (8.3%). In addition, most patients were considered middle class and had private health insurance.

Patients were put into two groups: relapse or abstinent. The researchers found that after surgical resection, 64 (38.1%) patients experienced smoking relapse compared with 104 (61.9%) who remained abstinent. Furthermore, Black patients were more likely to relapse than White patients. Smoking relapse was also greater in patients who were of younger age at the time of surgery. The mean age of patients included in the study was 64.7 years.

“The strength of this study was that it was conducted at a safety net hospital that caters to a diverse population, as evidenced by a higher proportion of Black and lower-income patients,” the study authors said.

Targeted smoking cessation programs that are geared toward these specific patient groups may help reduce the prevalence of postoperative smoking, the authors concluded.