Survival among US adults with post-cancer-diagnosis cigarette smoking cessation
Menée aux Etats-Unis à partir de données portant sur 8 120 adultes ayant survécu à un cancer, cette étude de cohorte rétrospective évalue l'association entre le sevrage tabagique dans les 3 ans suivant le diagnostic et la survie
Background: Current evidence on the impact of post-cancer-diagnosis cigarette smoking cessation on survival is largely based on small-scale studies with limited cancer types.
Methods: This retrospective cohort study included 8,120 adult cancer survivors from the 2000–2018 National Health Interview Survey Public-use Linked Mortality Files with death information through December 31, 2019. We performed propensity score weighting (PSW) and survival analysis to assess the association of smoking cessation within 3 years after a cancer diagnosis with all-cause mortality among adult cancer survivors of all cancer types, cancers with high relative survival rates, and four major cancers (lung, breast, prostate, and colorectal).
Results: Approximately 19.6% of cancer survivors who were cigarette smokers quit smoking within 3 years after their cancer diagnosis. Compared to those who did not quit, cancer survivors who quit had an additional median survival time (MST) of 4 (95% CI 3.1–4.9) years and a relatively lower risk of death (marginal hazard ratio (MHR) 0.86; 95% CI 0.76–0.98). A more pronounced survival benefit was found for survivors of cancers with a high 5-year relative survival rate (> 74%), where the quit group had a longer MST of 7 (95% CI 6.7–7.3) years and an MHR of 0.79 (95% CI 0.66–0.94). Except for colorectal cancer, significant survival benefits were also found for survivors of lung, prostate, and breast cancers.
Conclusion: By integrating PSW with linked nationally representative data spanning nearly two decades, we demonstrated that smoking cessation within 3 years after a cancer diagnosis was associated with a significant survival advantage.
Cancer Causes & Control , résumé, 2026