INTRODUCTION
Bladder cancer (BC) is the 9th most common cancer in
the world with high mortality rates.1 It is more
common in developed countries but more mortal in developing
countries.2 Nearly 75% of the BC are diagnosed at the
non-muscle invasive stage which are treated with local treatments.
Nearly one-third of non-muscle invasive bladder cancers (NMIBC) become
muscle invasive (MIBC) during the follow-up period.3Smoking, occupational carcinogen exposure, dietary factors,
environmental carcinogens, socioeconomic factors and genetic factors are
the main risk factors for BC in which smoking has a significant
effect.4-6 Several carcinogens like aromatic amines
and nitrosamines are found in tobacco and cause DNA damage that is
responsible for BC formation.7,8
Smoking is a prevalent bad habit in worldwide. Several social programs
aim to decrease the smoking rate but smoking habit does not decline in
many countries.9 Not only for the formation of BC,
smoking is also proposed to be a risk factor for recurrence and
progression. For that reason, patients who are smokers at the time of
diagnosis must stop smoking. One of the main responsibilities of the
clinician is to inform their patients about the hazardous risks of
smoking for their health. All clinicians recommend their patients to
stop smoking as soon as they diagnose BC. On the other hand, the main
question is; “does the patient understand and pay attention to this
reality and do they really stop smoking?” Most of the studies reported
the importance of cessation of smoking for the BC patients but there are
limited data documenting the reality about the rate of cessation of
smoking among BC patients.10,11
The primary aim of our study was to evaluate the behavior of BC patients
in terms of cessation of smoking after the diagnosis. The secondary aim
is to determine timing of patients to stop smoking after the diagnosis.
The tertiary aim was to evaluate the effect of ongoing smoking on
recurrence and progression of BC.