| 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).
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
- 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.
