Your cancer treatment may work better if you stop smoking. We can help you quit.
Holden’s Tobacco Treatment Program is a free service for Holden cancer patients who want to quit.
Our professionals in nursing, medicine, and psychology work with you to create a plan personalized for you, based on your needs and your cancer treatment, to help you quit tobacco use. Tobacco use includes cigarettes, cigars, pipes, smokeless tobacco, chewing tobacco, and electronic cigarettes.
You can make your cancer treatments more effective by quitting.
- Some cancer drugs don’t work as well in patients who smoke.
- Smoking can make some cancer drugs more harmful to your body, even as the drug is fighting your cancer.
- Cancer patients increase their overall risk of dying if they continue to smoke.
- Cancer patients who continue to smoke increase their risk of getting a second cancer.
It’s never too late to quit smoking.
Your body benefits almost immediately when you stop smoking. You may find that quitting improves your quality of life—your appetite, sleep, and emotional well-being may improve over the long-term.
We know that smokers with cancer have unique needs.
We will work with you and other members of your cancer care team to tailor smoking cessation treatment based on your readiness to quit and your overall cancer treatment plan. We will help you set short- and long-term goals, so that you can quit on a schedule that is comfortable for you.
We use a supportive, compassionate approach, without guilt or pressure. You choose when and how you quit.
Smokers have an easier time quitting when they work with a counselor—even smokers who are taking medication to stop smoking.
Research shows that the combination of working with a professional tobacco cessation counselor and taking medication for smoking cessation is more effective in quitting tobacco over the long term than either treatment alone. It’s also more effective than trying to quit on your own.
If you’re a Holden patient interested in quitting, talk to a member of your care team about making an appointment with Holden’s Tobacco Treatment Program.
Our cancer center staff can work with you to coordinate services with your medical appointments and arrange telephone follow-up.
For more information, call 1-319-356-4200. If you’re not a cancer patient at Holden but you’re interested in quitting, we have information you can use in our Prevention section.
