In a Russian single-institution prospective cohort study reported in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Sheikh et al found that quitting smoking after a diagnosis of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) was associated with improved disease progression and survival outcomes among patients.
Study Details
The study included 212 patients who were current smokers at diagnosis of RCC between 2007 and 2016 being treated by the Urological Department at the N.N. Blokhin National Medical Research Center of Oncology in Moscow. A structured questionnaire was completed at enrollment and patients were followed annually through 2020 for repeated assessment of smoking status and disease progression.
Key Findings
Over a median follow-up of 8.2 years, 110 cases of disease progression, 100 total deaths, and 77 cancer-specific deaths were observed.
A total of 84 patients (40%) quit smoking after RCC diagnosis. The total person-years at risk were 748.2 for the continuing smoking and 611.2 for quitting smoking periods. At 5 years, rates of overall survival (85% vs 61%, P < .001) and progression-free survival (80% vs 57%, P < .001) were higher during the quitting smoking period vs the continuing smoking period.
Improved overall survival during the smoking cessation period was observed among light smokers (P = .007), moderate-heavy smokers (P = .013), patients with early-stage disease (P = .025), and patients with late-stage disease (P = .048).
In multivariate time-dependent models, quitting during follow-up vs continuing smoking was associated with a lower risk of all-cause mortality (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.51, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.31–0.85), disease progression (HR = 0.45, 95% CI = 0.29–0.71), and cancer-specific mortality (HR = 0.54, 95% CI = 0.31–0.93).
The investigators concluded, “Quitting smoking after RCC diagnosis may significantly improve survival and reduce the risk of disease progression and cancer mortality among patients who smoke.”
Mahdi Sheikh, MD, PhD, of the Genomic Epidemiology Branch, International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC-WHO), Lyon, France, is the corresponding author for the Journal of Clinical Oncology article.
Disclosure: The study was supported by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC-WHO). For full disclosures of the study authors, visit ascopubs.org.
