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Once You Have Lung Cancer, Should You Bother To Quit Smoking?

Most smokers dread lung cancer. They are aware that by continuing to smoke the chances of developing lung cancer are increased 20 times, and that once it has developed the treatment is unpleasant and prognosis poor. Many patients (and unfortunately many clinicians) assume that once you have lung cancer it is too late to quit.

This week a new report was published in the BMJ, based on a review of the evidence that smoking cessation after diagnosis of a primary lung tumour affects prognosis. The study, by Drs Parsons, Daley and Aveyard at the UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies, combined the data from 10 studies. They found that those who quit smoking after diagnosis were significantly less likely to develop another tumor and significantly more likely to still be alive 5 years later. Read more »

This post, Once You Have Lung Cancer, Should You Bother To Quit Smoking?, was originally published on Healthine.com by Jonathan Foulds, Ph.D..

The Friday Funny: Why Evidence-Based Medicine Is Not The Whole Story

Thanks to Harriet Hall, I found this hilarious spoof article from the BMJ which perfectly illustrates why “Evidence-Based Medicine” (EBM) alone is not sufficient for answering medical questions. The abstract perfectly illustrates why randomized controlled trials must be viewed within the context of general scientific knowledge rather than in isolation. The weakness of EBM has been an over-reliance on “methodolatry” – resulting in conclusions made without consideration of prior probability, laws of physics, or plain common sense.

EBM is valuable but not sufficient for drawing accurate conclusions… which is why Steve Novella and the Science Based Medicine team have proposed that our quest for reliable information (upon which to make informed health decisions) should be based on good science rather than EBM alone.

Parachute use to prevent death and major trauma related to gravitational challenge: systematic review of randomised controlled trials

Gordon C S Smithprofessor1Jill P Pellconsultant2

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Latest Interviews

IDEA Labs: Medical Students Take The Lead In Healthcare Innovation

It’s no secret that doctors are disappointed with the way that the U.S. healthcare system is evolving. Most feel helpless about improving their work conditions or solving technical problems in patient care. Fortunately one young medical student was undeterred by the mountain of disappointment carried by his senior clinician mentors…

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How To Be A Successful Patient: Young Doctors Offer Some Advice

I am proud to be a part of the American Resident Project an initiative that promotes the writing of medical students residents and new physicians as they explore ideas for transforming American health care delivery. I recently had the opportunity to interview three of the writing fellows about how to…

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Latest Book Reviews

Book Review: Is Empathy Learned By Faking It Till It’s Real?

I m often asked to do book reviews on my blog and I rarely agree to them. This is because it takes me a long time to read a book and then if I don t enjoy it I figure the author would rather me remain silent than publish my…

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The Spirit Of The Place: Samuel Shem’s New Book May Depress You

When I was in medical school I read Samuel Shem s House Of God as a right of passage. At the time I found it to be a cynical yet eerily accurate portrayal of the underbelly of academic medicine. I gained comfort from its gallows humor and it made me…

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Eat To Save Your Life: Another Half-True Diet Book

I am hesitant to review diet books because they are so often a tangled mess of fact and fiction. Teasing out their truth from falsehood is about as exhausting as delousing a long-haired elementary school student. However after being approached by the authors’ PR agency with the promise of a…

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