Prediagnosis smoking cessation and overall survival among patients with non-small cell lung cancer
The Boston Lung Cancer Survival Cohort included patients with a NSCLC diagnosis between 1992 and 2022. Among these patients, 14.2% were never smokers, 59.1% were former smokers, and 26.7% were current smokers. Compared with never smokers, former and current smokers had 26% and 68% higher mortality, respectively, and log2-transformed years since smoking cessation before diagnosis was associated with significantly lower mortality among ever smokers. The authors conclude that quitting smoking early is associated with lower mortality following a lung cancer diagnosis, and the association of smoking history with overall survival may vary depending on clinical stage at diagnosis, potentially because of the differing treatment regimens and efficacy associated with smoking exposure following diagnosis.