The following is a summary of “Physician-brief advice for promoting smoking cessation among cancer patients on treatment in low and middle-income countries: a scoping review,” published in the January 2024 issue of Oncology by Ilesanmi et al.
In the realm of high-income countries, physician-brief advice has been a pivotal tool for fostering smoking cessation among cancer patients. However, the empirical evidence validating its efficacy in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) remains scarce, possibly due to insufficient training and competing healthcare priorities hindering the implementation of targeted smoking cessation interventions in oncology settings. This scoping review aims to fill this knowledge gap by evaluating the effectiveness of physician-brief advice in promoting smoking cessation among cancer patients in LMICs. Researchers examined articles meeting pre-defined inclusion criteria through a comprehensive search across prominent databases up to November 2023, encompassing the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Cochrane Library (Tobacco Addiction Group trials), World Conference on Lung Cancer proceedings, PubMed, and Google Scholar.
Focusing on cancer survivors in LMICs, the intervention involved smoking cessation advice delivered by physicians in clinics or oncology centers during consultations, with the primary outcome centered on the impact of smoking cessation programs on discontinuing smoking among these survivors. The findings revealed that, on average, seven out of every 10 cancer patients in LMICs were smokers, and approximately half of them had received physician-brief advice for smoking cessation. Notably, such advice was more frequently dispensed to patients with smoking-related cancer. However, challenges leading to smoking cessation failure were identified, including difficulties in managing withdrawal symptoms, missed clinic visits, mental health disorders, time and resource constraints, and limited patient-physician contact. The scarcity of literature on the frequency and efficacy of physician-brief advice in LMICs underscores the need for increased attention to this critical aspect of cancer care.
The study suggests that cancer patients in LMICs exhibit low self-efficacy in quitting smoking, emphasizing the urgency for physician training in motivational messaging and effective counseling techniques. Policymakers are urged to allocate resources for the implementation of physician-brief advice and develop tailored training programs for physicians, fostering an environment conducive to smoking cessation among cancer patients in LMICs.
Source: bmccancer.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12885-024-11872-z
