PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Micaela Lina AU - Paolo Pozzi AU - Cinzia Brunelli AU - Marco Alessandro Pierotti AU - Roberto Boffi TI - Physicians' smoking habit, training and attitude toward cancer patient smoking cessation: The Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori experience DP - 2012 Sep 01 TA - European Respiratory Journal PG - P4047 VI - 40 IP - Suppl 56 4099 - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/40/Suppl_56/P4047.short 4100 - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/40/Suppl_56/P4047.full SO - Eur Respir J2012 Sep 01; 40 AB - Backgrounds and aim: Guidelines recommend all physicians to ask patients (Pts) about their smoking status and to offer cessation advice (SC). Aim of the study was to examine the smoking habit of medical doctors (MDs) at the Milan Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori (INT), to relate this to their level of training and to their attitudes in suggesting patients to quit smoking.Materials and methods: All MDs of the INT (n=285) were mailed a web-based survey.Results: Fourteen percent of MDs were current smokers; only 23% of all clinicians received a training proposal in SC, 6% attended a SC course, even if 43% declared their willingness to do it. 86% of them asked Pts about smoking status, but only 50% advised Pts to quit and 32% assessed their motivation to do it. Guidelines were disregarded because of lack of time, fear to increase patients' stress or lack of skills in SC. Smoking habits didn't influence training attendance,willingness to be trained in SC or Pts referral to Tobacco Control Unit.Conclusion: Smoking prevalence among INT MDs was still too high for healthcare practitioners and a low proportion of them was ever involved in a SC traing session; however, smoking status doesn't appear to influence MDs' choice of training rather than the eventual referral of cancer smoker Pts to the dedicated Unit. Surveys like this should encourage cancer centers to make SC as part of their core mission and to implement SC training in their institutional policies.