Pain experiences among a population-based cohort of current, former, and never regular smokers with lung and colorectal cancer.

BACKGROUND: Smoking and pain are prevalent and comorbid among patients with cancer. Limited work has compared pain experiences among current, former, and never (regular) smokers with lung and colorectal cancer.

METHODS: We studied pain experiences of patients with lung (n = 2390) and colorectal (n = 2993) cancer participating in the multi-regional Cancer Care Outcomes Research and Surveillance study. We examined reports of pain, pain treatment, pain severity, and pain-related interference within each cancer group by smoking status, adjusting for demographic, psychosocial, and cancer characteristics.

RESULTS: Among lung cancer patients, current smokers reported pain and receiving pain treatment more often than former smokers. Never smokers did not differ from current and former smokers on endorsement of pain; however, they reported pain treatment less often than their counterparts. Current smokers reported greater pain severity than former smokers after adjusting for other contributing factors; however, no differences were detected between current and never smokers. There were no differences in pain-related interference. Among colorectal cancer patients, current smokers reported pain and pain treatment more often than former and never smokers; however, the latter 2 groups did not differ. Current smokers also reported greater pain severity than never smokers after adjustments; however, no differences were detected between current and former smokers. An identical pattern of findings was observed for pain-related interference.

CONCLUSIONS: Many smokers with lung and colorectal cancer experience pain following a cancer diagnosis. Future work should assess if comprehensive smoking cessation treatments that address pain can reduce pain and facilitate smoking cessation among patients with cancer.