Current work within the smoking cessation and weight gain subgroup includes:

• A pilot randomised control trial on Dietary Management in Smokers Trial (DEMIST) which is looking at the most effective way of preventing weight gain in smokers who are trying to quit. This study is being funded by the UK Centre for Tobacco Control. We are currently seeking funding for a phase III trial based on this experience.
  The protocol for this trial can be found online at: www.trialsjournal.com/content/11/1/94
  For more information contact Deborah Lycett
• A Systematic Review: effects of weight gain and weight concerns on relapse to smoking.
  For more information contact Deborah Lycett
• A Cochrane review: Effect of interventions for post cessation weight gain on smoking and weight has been published. We will update this review soon.
• A systematic review of the rate and variability of weight gain in people stopping smoking
• An observational study on the association between smoking intensity and markers of body fatness

Patients who are diagnosed with early stage lung cancer can double their chances of survival over five years if they stop smoking compared with those who continue to smoke, according to researchers based within Health and Population Sciences.

In findings published on bmj.com, HaPS researchers suggest that offering smoking cessation treatment as part of early stage lung cancer patients’ therapy could be valuable.

Researchers undertook the first ever review of studies that measure the effects of continued smoking after diagnosis of lung cancer. There is an established link between smoking and lung cancer; indeed lifelong smokers have a 20-fold increased risk compared with non-smokers. However, until now scientists have not known if cessation on diagnosis can improve prognosis.

Amanda Parsons, Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham site of UK Centre of Tobacco Control Studies based in Primary Care Clinical Sciences explains, “We found that people who continued to smoke after a diagnosis of early stage lung cancer had a substantially higher risk of death and a greater risk of the tumour returning compared with those who stopped smoking at that time. The data suggests that most of the increased risk of death was due to cancer progression.”

The team found that about twice as many quitters would survive for five years compared with continuing smokers, with a five year survival rate of 63-70% among quitters compared with 29-33% among those who continued to smoke.

Amanda added that the key message was that it is never too late to give up smoking and that benefits can be seen even when people have been diagnosed with early stage lung cancer. The research indicates that continued smoking may affect the behaviour of a lung tumour and that smoking cessation for those with early stage lung cancer can make a real impact on survival rates. The next goal for the team's research is to test the effect of a smoking cessation intervention in this population in a large scale clinical trial.

We are working to develop interventions for cancer patients to provide state of the art behavioural interventions for cancer patients to prevent the recurrence of their cancer. We are following the MRC Complex Intervention Framework in developing these interventions. We are interviewing cancer patients to find out their views on the best way to develop intervetions for this. This work is funded by the NIHR.

We are working with colleagues at Heartlands Hospital to evaluate an improved package of preparation for surgery and post-operative care for patients with operable lung cancer 

It is well known that smoking cessation prevents many acute and chronic diseases. What is rather less well clear is what benefits a person gets from smoking cessation if they already have a chronic disease. We are conducting systematic reviews to summarise this evidence. We have also conducted rapid reviews of this evidence and these were published by the Department of Health.

For more information contact Amanda Parsons

Cardiovascular patients

Diabetic patients

Oncology patients

Orthopaedic patients

Paediatrics

Pregnant women

Respiratory patients

Surgical patients

Wound care

Current work within the Smoking Reduction and Smoking Cessation subgroup include:

Rapid Reduction

A randomised controlled trial to examine whether reducing smoking prior to quit day is formally equivalent to abrupt cessation (the normal method of cessation advocated by most people). Many people who smoke feel that abrupt cessation is too hard to accomplish, but could commit to reduction as an intermediate goal. It could help give more people treatment if we offer guided reduction programmes.

The protocol for this trial can be found online at: http://www.trialsjournal.com/content/10/1/69

Reduction materials used in RRT, presented at the UK National Smoking Cessation Conference 2010 in Glasgow

For more information contact Nicola Lindson

RedPharm

A randomised controlled trial to assess the feasibility of nicotine assisted reduction to stop in pharmacies to test whether smoking reduction programme would help heavy smokers to reduce their smoking. The study also aims to examine if behavioural support and the length of the trial affect the success rate for cessation and whether this programme would be feasible for pharmacists to run. This trial is being funded by the Medical Research Council.

For more information contact Taina Taskila

RedGP

A randomised trial of cessation advice versus smoking reduction. This is a pilot study to examine the feasibility of providing a smoking reduction service for people with smoking-related chronic disease within G.P practice. Two practices will be randomised to control arms to advice abrupt cessation as normal and two intervention practices will offer support for smoking reduction. All practices will enhance their recording in smoking reduction activity in the population of interest. This project is being funded by Heart of Birmingham PCT.

For more information contact Taina Taskila

ARTS

A double blind randomised controlled trial of attentional bias retraining in cigarette smokers attempting smoking cessation. This trial is looking at whether smokers who want to quit can have their attention retrained away from smoking ‘triggers’ using visual probes and whether this has an impact on their ability to succeed in their quit attempt. This project is being funded by NIHR Trainees Coordinating Centre grant to Rachna Begh. We are working with Marcus Munafo to develop the intervention.

A Cochrane review of smoking reduction versus abrupt quitting

Members of the team have undertaken a Cochrane Review, and will continue to keep this up to date, comparing reduction to quit and abrupt quitting interventions, to see whether either method is superior. The review is called ‘Reduction versus abrupt cessation in smokers who want to quit’ and can be found at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/o/cochrane/clsysrev/articles/CD008033/frame.html  

The aim of this group is to conduct small exploratory studies, which may add support to an application for a larger study / randomised controlled trials, or that undergraduate students can work on as part of their final year projects. The group are currently working on a project investigating service users’ attitudes toward the smoking status of their stop smoking advisor, and the effect advisors feel this has on their provision of support. For more information please contact Nicola Lindson or Rachna Begh