In keeping with its goals to improve patients’ health and enhance the knowledge and training of oncology providers, ASCO released a new set of resources for tobacco cessation counseling. The evidence-based Tobacco Cessation Guide for Oncology Providers describes practical steps for educating patients about the negative effects of tobacco use on cancer treatment outcomes and to help them quit. The guide, accompanied by a take-home booklet for patients, addresses the growing need for instruction on how to effectively integrate tobacco cessation into routine patient care and how to overcome barriers to practice.

“It is well recognized that tobacco use increases the risks of several kinds of cancers. However, patients are often not aware of the effects that continued tobacco use can have on their cancer treatment outcomes,” said K. Michael Cummings, PhD, member of ASCO’s Tobacco Control Subcommittee and Professor at the Medical University of South Carolina Hollings Cancer Center. “As oncology providers, we have a responsibility to assist patients’ efforts to cease tobacco use, since not smoking will improve the success of the cancer therapies we offer to our patients.”

Using this resource, oncology providers will be able to explain the importance of tobacco cessation, identify ways to help their patients quit, and obtain appropriate reimbursement for the tobacco cessation services they
provide.

The provider guide and patient booklet are available for purchase in the ASCO University Bookstore, and available to download at asco.org/tobaccocessationguide and cancer.net/tobacco.