New grants fund research linking cessation with lung cancer screening

Two new grants from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) are supporting research into smoking cessation interventions for high-risk smokers undergoing lung cancer screening.

Researchers at Truth Initiative’s Schroeder Institute® for Tobacco Research and Policy Studies will work with investigators at Mayo Clinic and Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center on the NCI-funded projects, which will examine cost-efficient and effective methods that can help lung cancer screening patients quit smoking.

The project with Mayo Clinic will evaluate the impact of integrating Truth Initiative’s digital cessation program, BecomeAnEX, with Mayo Clinic counseling. This multi-site study will answer important questions about how best to engage patients in cessation treatment and the optimal treatment approach. Dr. Amanda Graham of the Schroeder Institute and lead of the BecomeAnEX program is a co-investigator on the project.

The project led by Georgetown Lombardi will evaluate what type of telephone counseling intervention is most effective. The project will compare patients who receive a standard referral of eight telephone counseling sessions with those who receive personalized counselor-initiated sessions. Drs. David Abrams and Raymond Niaura of the Schroeder Institute will serve as co-investigators.

Research has long shown the connection between cancer and cigarette smoking: lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the U.S., and cigarette smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Truth Initiative has encouraged programs such as the NCI's Moonshot Task Force to emphasize tobacco control and push forward health policy initiatives as key aspects of cancer prevention. As Truth Initiative wrote to Vice President Joe Biden, who leads the task force, we cannot win the fight against cancer without winning the fight against tobacco.

Research reported here is supported by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health under Award Numbers R01CA207048 and R01CA207228. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.