Smoking or using alcohol during your gastrointestinal cancer treatment can make your treatment less effective and increase your risk for a cancer recurrence. Your doctor will likely recommend that you stop smoking completely and strictly limit alcohol consumption. To help you make these lifestyle changes, our experts offer supportive resources.

Smoking Cessation

Smoking hurts your body’s ability to heal, adding extra risk to cancer surgery. It also increases your risk for treatment side effects.

The BeSmokeFree program provides comprehensive support to help you stop smoking. This free program is available at four different times throughout the week, so it can easily fit into your schedule. Through the program, you’ll learn about strategies for quitting smoking and connect with other former smokers who can share their experiences with you.
We also offer clinical trials of medicines designed to help you quit smoking. These trials cover the cost of medication and monitor you through treatment.

Even if you have quit smoking, your doctor may also recommend you undergo lung cancer screening. This screening is commonly recommended for people over age 55 who have a 30 pack-year history. A pack-year is the equivalent of smoking one pack per day for a year. For example, if you smoked two packs per day for a year, that is a two pack-year history.

Alcohol Cessation

Heavy alcohol use is associated with multiple gastrointestinal cancers, including liver cancer, esophageal cancer, and colon cancer. By stopping to drink alcohol, you can reduce your risk for treatment side effects and your risk of developing cancer again in the future.

Our caring team of psychologists and psychiatrists can help you overcome addiction to alcohol. Using a combination of therapies and medicines, they can help you stop drinking and improve your health.