A new study highlights the success of the largest-ever quality improvement initiative to focus on the critically important issue of smoking among cancer patients.
The study, led by 好色先生 Markey Cancer Center researcher Jessica Burris, PhD, and Nov. 19, analyzed outcomes from the 鈥 (ACS) 鈥淛ust Ask鈥 quality improvement program.
The initiative, led by Timothy Mullett, MD, Markey Cancer Center surgeon and former chair of the ACS , was implemented at 762 cancer care facilities nationwide 鈥 making it the largest effort of its kind to improve smoking assessment and documentation in cancer care settings.
The study found that programs participating in Just ASK improved their rates of assessing and documenting patients鈥 smoking status, with the assessment rate increasing to nearly 92% by the end of the one-year program.
Smoking among patients diagnosed with cancer is associated with treatment-related complications plus cancer recurrence, poor survival and increased treatment costs. Despite these risk factors,鈥痭early 25% of new patients with cancer and 16% of cancer survivors report current smoking.
Smoking assessment, or 鈥渏ust asking鈥 is an important first step in helping patients with cancer access evidence-based smoking cessation treatment, which can improve their cancer treatment outcomes, says Burris, co-leader of Markey鈥檚 Cancer Prevention and Control Research Program and an associate professor in the 好色先生 College of Arts and Sciences鈥 Department of Psychology.
鈥淲hat this study shows is that we can successfully make population-based smoking assessment a standard part of cancer care,鈥 said Burris. 鈥淭his is important because before providers can help patients quit smoking 鈥 which we know improves their health outcomes and reduces treatment costs 鈥 they first need to identify who needs that support. Providers being proactive in asking about smoking and offering support is key since stigma and guilt will stop some patients from asking for the help they need to quit successfully.鈥
Just ASK was adopted by a wide range of oncology settings, including academic facilities and both large and small community cancer programs.鈥疨articipating programs gained access to an online toolkit that contained information about evidence-based smoking assessment and cessation assistance practices, technical tools, and training and education opportunities.
Programs implemented several practical recommendations to improve smoking assessment for patients with cancer, including training staff and providers, developing patient education materials, and improving smoking-related documentation.
A second ACS quality improvement project called addresses building programs鈥 capacity to offer cessation assistance.鈥