Smoking Cessation
There are many obstacles to face when helping people quit smoking. Smoking can be a very strong habit that involves the potent drug nicotine, but is a very important lifestyle change, especially for patients undergoing cancer treatment. It is critical that cancer patients quit smoking after initial diagnosis, as this has been shown to positively impact response to treatments (therapeutic radiology, chemotherapy, surgery), decrease the likelihood that patients will develop second malignancies, and increase rates of survival. Motivational factors often come into play because people receive satisfaction from smoking, and in many cases have been smoking since youth.
Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven offers a quit smoking program. Developed by Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Dr. Benjamin Toll, the program aims to help patients quit by combining counseling and drug treatment. The cessation program is offered to all patients being treated at Smilow, for specific cancers.
The Smoking Cessation Service at Smilow Cancer Hospital operates on the principles of Prospect Theory, which states that gain-framed messages that focus on the benefits of quitting smoking may make a person more likely to quit smoking. For example, instead of saying, if you continue smoking, you are at higher risk for future cancer tumors, a gain-framed approach would say, if you quit smoking you are at lower risk for future cancer tumors.
The Smoking Cessation Service at Smilow encourages patients to quit by stressing the benefits quitting will have on their health and their treatment, not by pointing out the harm smoking can cause. Dr. Toll’s research has also explored the problem of weight gain during smoking cessation and many other factors involved in the highly complex act of quitting.
The program utilizes the appropriate treatment based on each patient’s individual situation and history with smoking.
To find out more information about the service, please contact Dr. Benjamin Toll at benjamin.toll@yale.edu, or Helena Chmielowicz, APRN at (203) 688-1378.
