The International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) released a statement urging physicians to recommend tobacco cessation for patients after cancer diagnosis, at the ongoing World Conference on Lung Cancer in Barcelona, Spain.
The declaration is part of an initiative by the IASLC tobacco control and smoking cessation committee to promote more physician involvement in tobacco use among cancer patients. It offers several recommendations, including the following:
- Screening all cancer patients for tobacco use and advising them regarding cessation.
- Integrating routine tobacco cessation assistance into care for cancer patients who continue smoking after diagnosis.
- Providing reimbursement for smoking cessation counseling and treatment.
- Requiring the inclusion of patient smoking status in prospective clinical studies.
- Including tobacco cessation training in cancer management programs.
"For too long this has been a neglected problem in the education of health professionals," Dr. Jacek Jassem, from the Medical University of Gdańsk in Poland, said in a statement. "Many physicians still believe that it is too late to offer smoking cessation support at cancer diagnosis."
![Images show the pectoralis muscles of a healthy male individual who never smoked (age, 66 years; height, 178 cm; body mass index [BMI, calculated as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared], 28.4; number of cigarette pack-years, 0; forced expiratory volume in 1 second [FEV1], 97.6% predicted; FEV1: forced vital capacity [FVC] ratio, 0.71; pectoralis muscle area [PMA], 59.4 cm2; pectoralis muscle volume [PMV], 764 cm3) and a male individual with a smoking history and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD) (age, 66 years; height, 178 cm; BMI, 27.5; number of cigarette pack-years, 43.2, FEV1, 48% predicted; FEV1:FVC, 0.56; PMA, 35 cm2; PMV, 480.8 cm3) from the Canadian Cohort Obstructive Lung Disease (i.e., CanCOLD) study. The CT image is shown in the axial plane. The PMV is automatically extracted using the developed deep learning model and overlayed onto the lungs for visual clarity.](https://img.auntminnie.com/mindful/smg/workspaces/default/uploads/2026/03/genkin.25LqljVF0y.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&crop=focalpoint&dpr=2&fit=crop&h=167&q=70&w=250)
