Tobacco use after cancer diagnosis has now become the elephant in the room, a huge issue in oncology that many in the field are ignoring.

This demonstrates that the diagnosis of cancer is a wake-up call to many patients, one which demands our support if we want to provide the best outcomes possible.

Now that we know that smoking produces detrimental effects on treatment outcomes, it makes sense that this is a contributing factor that could affect the success of a clinical trial.

About 15% to 20% of patients have emotional or psychological needs that have not been adequately dealt with. We have been so focused on disease treatment that those important elements have traditionally been given lower priority.

Our goal in smoking-related research is to detect those who are susceptible to nicotine, identify the best ways to prevent these persons from beginning to smoke and, if they do, determine how best to break the nicotine addiction that can result.

The important thing is that the cancer cell, in and of itself, has a very deregulated system so the FAK protein can make the cell go wild when it's inappropriately active.