The following article features coverage from the IASLC 18th World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC) in Yokohama, Japan. Click here to read more of Cancer Therapy Advisor‘s conference coverage.

Patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who smoke currently or who smoked previously have worse health, quality of life (QoL), and financial burden, and more work- and activity-related impairments compared with never-smokers, according to research presented at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) 18th Annual World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC) in Yokohama, Japan.1

For this cross-sectional study, researchers collected the data of 1030 adult patients with advanced NSCLC from medical chart reviews and various patient questionnaires. The financial effects of NSCLC, such as out-of-pocket costs and costs of productivity losses, were measured.


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Outcomes were stratified by smoker status; 77.9% of patients were current/former smokers and 22.1% never smoked.

Current/former smokers had significantly worse health status and QoL compared with patients who never smoked as measured by the EQ-5D-3L utility index (0.65 vs 0.71; P = .0142), EQ-VAS (56.0 vs 61.9; P < .0001), and EORTC QLQ-C30 (46.8 vs 52.2; P = .0002).

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Overall work was significantly reduced, with 40.3% impairment in current/former smokers vs 32.0% impairment in patients who never smoked (P = .0349); activity impairment was 55.5% in current/former smokers compared with 44.6% in patients who never smoked (P < .0001).

Current/former smokers and patients who never smoked reported costs of annual productivity losses of €9637.53 and €7503.16 (P = .0170), respectively, and annual out-of-pocket costs of €4235.76 and €2654.58 (P = .0289), respectively.

The authors concluded that “[t]hese findings suggest an association between tobacco smoking and the humanistic and financial burden incurred by patients with [advanced]-NSCLC.”

Read more of Cancer Therapy Advisor‘s coverage of the IASLC 18th World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC) by visiting the conference page.

Reference

  1. Chirita O, Wood R, Taylor-Stokes G, Lees M. Impact of tobacco smoking on the humanistic and financial burden of advanced non-small cell lung cancer (A-NSCLC). Presented at: International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer 18th World Conference on Lung Cancer; Yokohama, Japan: October 15-18, 2017. Abstract OA 11.01.