More positive attitude and less symptom burden for male smokers with lung cancer.

Abstract

e20692 Background: Cigarette smoking causes many kinds of cancer, and it is more closely related with lung cancer, rather than other cancers. Smoking is the leading cause of lung cancer and ninety percent of the smokers are male in China, but there is little published data concerning the psychological responses in the male smokers with lung cancer and its influence on the symptom burden. The aim of the study is to verify the hypothesis that male smokers with lung cancer have more positive attitude and less symptom burden, comparing to male non-smokers. Methods: 194 men with cancer in West China Hospital, Sichuan, China, were assessed by self-administered questionnaire. Psychological response was measured by the Chinese version of Mini-Mental Adjustment to Cancer scale (Mini-MAC), and symptom burden was measured by the physical symptom distress scale from the Rotterdam Symptom Checklist (RSCL). Results: We found that smokers with lung cancer got higher scores in Positive Attitude and less symptom burden than non-smokers. Patients with degrees lower than high school got higher scores of positive attitude comparing to college graduate patients (p=0.038). Smokers with lung cancer who knew the potential carcinogenicity of cigarette showed less negative emotion (p=0.011). The psychological response was not affected by age, clinical stage, cell type, smoking duration and amount. Conclusions: Our study suggests that smokers with lung cancer have more positive attitude and less symptom burden, and prone to accept subsequent treatment.