OBJECTIVE: Despite the benefits of using evidence-based tobacco treatment to quit smoking, many cancer patients continue smoking after diagnosis. Many survivors decline assistance with smoking cessation due to the desire to quit without assistance. This qualitative study sought to describe cancer patients' physical and psychological reasons for their decision to decline assistance with smoking cessation. METHOD: Participants were 35 adult cancer patients who were recruited from outpatient oncology clinics. Participants reported tobacco use in the past month and declined referral to an "in-house" tobacco treatment due to the desire to quit without assistance. On average, participants were 54.4 years old, mostly female (68.57%) and White, non-Hispanic (85.7%). The most common cancer site was gynecological (28.6%. RESULTS: Multiple physical and psychological reasons for declining tobacco treatment emerged, including distress, feeling overwhelmed, cancer treatment intensity and treatment side-effects. CONCLUSIONS: These findings underscore the need to address psychological and physical reasons for cancer patients' decline in tobacco treatment. Psychosocial practitioners can play a role in addressing these factors. Interventions to address these factors should offer flexible, time-limited, and tailored tobacco treatment to increase treatment acceptance.
Borger et al. (Mon,) studied this question.