Stopping smoking after kidney cancer diagnosis may reduce the risk of cancer progression and death

A recent study looked at whether stopping smoking after a diagnosis of kidney cancer may affect the risk of disease progression and death in patients who smoked at the time of diagnosis.

There were 212 patients with kidney cancer in the study, which took place in a medical research centre in Moscow, Russia. Patients completed a questionnaire and were followed up to assess their smoking status and disease progression.

Patients were followed for an average of 8.2 years. During this time, 110 patients had disease progression, and there were 100 deaths, 77 of which were related to the kidney cancer. Eighty-four patients (40%) quit smoking after diagnosis. After 5 years of follow-up, both overall survival (85% versus 61%) and progression-free survival (80% versus 57%) were higher for those patients who had stopped smoking after their diagnosis.