Study Shows that Quality of Life in Lung and Colorectal Cancer Patients and their Caregivers is Impacted by Smoking, Mesothelioma Caregivers Should Take Heed
Researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine have found another reason to quit smoking: the caregiver/patient dyad (pair) suffers more emotional stress if one of them continues to smoke when one is suffering from lung cancer or colorectal cancer. An incurable cancer that affects the lining of the lungs, mesothelioma, is stressful enough to deal with due to the rarity and aggressiveness of the disease, and adding smoking to the mix, researchers say, can negatively impact the quality of life.
Pleural mesothelioma, a unique form of lung cancer that affects the lining of the lungs, is primarily caused by asbestos dust breathed into the lungs. While cigarette smoking alone has no known causative affect on mesothelioma incidence, according to the National Cancer Institute the combination of smoking and asbestos exposure significantly increases the risk of developing cancer of the air passageways in the lung. They also say that smoking accounts for 90% of lung cancer cases and 85% of head and neck cancers. Smoking cessation is one of the primary ways to prevent lung disease.
Researchers have already determined that cancer pain may be increased in those who continued to smoke after their cancer diagnosis compared to patients who had never smoked. Also, in a separate study researchers say that cancer patients that continue to smoke suffer from insomnia and have a poor sleep quality. According to the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), smoking may also reduce the effectiveness of cancer treatment
The study, published by the American Association for Cancer Research, studied 742 lung and colorectal patient-caregiver dyads. 67% of the cancer patients were male with local or regional disease, and close to 80% of the informal caregivers were females under 65 years of age and were most often the patients’ spouse. The results showed that “lung and colorectal cancer caregivers, who were members of dyads where one or both members continued to smoke, reported worse mental health quality of life than nonsmoking dyads.”
