Smoking accounts for at least 30% of all cancer deaths and 87% of lung cancer deaths, making smoking cessation (quitting smoking) the single most important thing a person can do to lower his or her individual cancer risk.

As the world’s leading professional organization representing medical professionals who treat people with cancer, ASCO is committed to providing information on community resources, in addition to your doctor, that can aid and support your efforts to stop smoking:

• Smokefree.gov provides information and professional assistance to help support the immediate and long-term needs of people trying to quit smoking. Created by the Tobacco Control Research Branch of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), the site features an online step-by-step cessation guide. You can chat live with an NCI smoking cessation counselor during designated hours, in addition to speaking to a counselor over the phone at NCI’s national quitline, 1-877-44U-QUIT (1-877-448-7848). This program also offers the toll-free 1-800-QUITNOW (1-800-784-8669) to find help within your state. Print resources in English and Spanish designed for specific audiences, such as smokers over the age of 50 and pregnant smokers who have recently quit, may be downloaded and printed free of charge. You may also search for clinical trials that are enrolling smokers who wish to quit.
  
  
• Smoking and Tobacco Use, from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, offers information on the health effects of tobacco, secondhand smoke, smokeless tobacco, and youth tobacco prevention, in addition to links to booklets and tip sheets on quitting, such as a “5-Day Countdown” checklist.

• The American Cancer Society's (ACS) Guide to Quitting Smoking features information on how nicotine addiction works, the health benefits of quitting, coping with the psychological and physical addiction of smoking, preparing for your “Quit Day,” and resources to help cope with withdrawal, such as nicotine-replacement therapy and prescription medications.

• American Lung Association’s Freedom from Smoking Online cessation program, organized into seven modules, can help you determine your readiness to quit, learn stress management and relaxation techniques, substitute other behaviors for smoking, deal with weight control, and understand the effects of secondhand smoke.

• The American Legacy Foundation offers an online, five-step EX Quit Plan program, developed in collaboration with the Mayo Clinic. A printed quit-plan book is also available to order.

• Many communities have meetings of the twelve-step program group, Nicotine Anonymous. This program offers group support and recovery using the 12 steps as adapted from Alcoholics Anonymous to achieve abstinence from nicotine. You can search for a local meeting, find out how to start a new meeting, and purchase program literature and resources.

• Your local or state health department has information about smoking cessation classes and support in your area.

• Kick Butts Day is the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids' annual celebration of youth advocacy, leadership, and activism against tobacco. The next Kick Butts Day is April 2, 2008.

Tobacco