Smoking cessation rates of patients with bladder cancer and its effect on oncological outcomes

Objective: Smoking is a major risk factor for the development of bladder cancer (BC). We evaluated the rate and the time of cessation of smoking in patients with BC and analyzed the effect of ongoing smoking on BC recurrence and progression. Methods: All patients were informed at the time of BC diagnosis about the correlation between smoking and BC and were 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 in the study. The mean follow-up period was 37.3 +/- 27.8 months (7-143 months). There were 102 (41.6%) patients who were smokers and 143 (58.4%) patients who were non-smokers 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 smoking status and recurrence/progression. Conclusion: The rate of cessation of smoking in 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 to the tumor recurrence and progression.