Smoking cessation in cancer care in Prince Edward Island

PEI Cancer Treatment Centre – Tobacco Cessation and Relapse Prevention Program

Offers point-of-care smoking cessation support for ambulatory patients with cancer:

• All new patients with cancer are asked about their tobacco use status at intake and a tobacco cessation consultation is integrated into a tobacco user’s initial appointment at the cancer centre. Front-line staff routinely discuss tobacco use with patients with cancer, advise them to quit smoking and offer a referral for further support.
• A multi-disciplinary team of on-site tobacco cessation educators provides patients with cancer with behavioural counselling, recommendations for smoking cessation medications, follow-up support and referrals to community smoking cessation resources, including the provincial quitline, Smokers’ Helpline. Caregivers that smoke can also receive on-site counselling and a referral to the PEI Tobacco Cessation Program.
• All residents enrolled in the PEI Tobacco Cessation Program are eligible for free nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) or prescription smoking cessation medications. With short-term funding, PEI Cancer Treatment Centre is piloting the provision of free NRT for patients with cancer at the point of care.

COVID-19 response: Cancer centres are offering tobacco cessation support by phone, and referrals are being made to community services, such as the PEI Tobacco Cessation Program and Smokers’ Helpline.

Cancer patients’ access to smoking cessation support

In 2020, the two cancer centres on Prince Edward Island offered outpatients support to quit smoking, including culturally appropriate supports for First Nations, Inuit and Métis patients with cancer.

Partnership-funded project – Enhancing smoking cessation services to support optimal outcomes for cancer patients

Overall smoking cessation in cancer care implementation level: Gold

Category	Implementation criteria met	Level
Behavioural Counselling	Offers 3A (Ask, Advise, Act) or 5A (Ask, Advise, Assess, Assist, Arrange) model with an opt-out approach	Silver
Pharmacotherapy	Offers free varenicline, bupropion and/or NRT	Gold
Person-Centered	Engages patients in program planning and gathers patient feedback	Silver
Culturally Competent	Offers staff cultural competency training	Bronze
Partnership	Works with multi-disciplinary team and community partners, with mechanisms for information sharing to track patient progress	Gold
Indicator Measurement and Reporting	Collects and reports on adoption, reach and uptake data	Silver

Downloadable content