A study released today in JAMA Network Open reported that smoking after a cancer diagnosis is associated with substantial additional costs of cancer treatment.
A study released today in JAMA Network Open reported that smoking after a cancer diagnosis is associated with substantial additional costs of cancer treatment.
Hollings Cancer Center researcher Graham Warren, M.D., Ph.D., says the study establishes a model to estimate the economic burden of smoking on cancer treatment, which is information that can benefit patients as well as health care providers.“These data estimate that smoking could result in $3.4 billion in additional cancer treatment costs nationally if patients continue to smoke after being diagnosed with cancer,” says Warren, lead author on the study and professor and vice chairman for Research in Radiation Oncology at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC).
“We know that continued smoking can lead to bad treatment outcomes for patients with cancer. The 2014 Surgeon General’s Report concluded that continued smoking after a cancer diagnosis increases the risk of dying from cancer and other smoking related diseases. This is really the first time that the economic burden of smoking on cancer treatment has been estimated.”
Read more at Medical University of South Carolina
