ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Smoking is the major risk factor for development of
bladder cancer (BC). We evaluated the rate and the time of cessation of
smoking in patients with BC and analysed the effect of ongoing smoking
at recurrence and progression.
METHODS: All patients were informed at the time of BC diagnosis
about the correlation between smoking and BC and strictly warned to quit
smoking. The demographic properties, pathologic characteristics and
smoking status of the patients were evaluated retrospectively. Both the
patients and the family members were questioned to evaluate the smoking
status of the patient during the follow-up period. The disease
recurrence and progression were correlated with the habitual attitude of
patients in terms of smoking status.
RESULTS: A total of 245 patients were included to the study.
The mean follow-up period was 37.3±27.8 months (7-143 months). There
were 102(41.6%) patients who were smoker and 143(58.4%) patients who
were non-smoker at the time of diagnosis. Among the smoker patients,
34(33.3%) stopped smoking after the diagnosis of BC. The median smoking
cessation time was 1.5 months and 64.7% of these patients stopped
smoking in the first six months after the diagnosis. The Cox regression
model did not show any relationship between the smoking status and
recurrence/progression.
CONCLUSION: The rate of cessation of smoking at BC patients was
low. The first months of the diagnosis were the most suitable period for
the patients to stop smoking. The smoking status after the diagnosis was
not related with the tumour recurrence and progression.
Key words: Bladder cancer, Smoking, Cigarette, Smoking
Cessation, Oncological Outcome