Therapeutic Radiographer perspectives on smoking cessation

Smoking is considered a global epidemic, which kills more than 8 million people each year¹. In 2020, 22.3% of the world's population, predominantly men, were smokers¹. This lifestyle habit has been heavily researched concerning the impact it has on cancer diagnosis and treatment². Statistics have shown that smoking is the leading cause of cancer with 15% of cancers being directly linked to this habit². In addition to this, one in five cancer deaths is caused by smoking³. Healthcare professionals are aware of the implications continued smoking throughout radiotherapy has on the side effects, which negatively impact the patient's quality of life⁴. Furthermore, smoking can negatively impact treatment outcomes by causing cellular changes and hypoxia, thus reducing the success of treatments such as chemotherapy, immunotherapy and radiotherapy⁵.

Throughout a patient's treatment, they...