Call for smokers to be offered cancer risk test

File photo / NZH

Smokers are in denial that their habit causes lung cancer and they should be offered tests that show their personal risk, a researcher says.

Auckland University Associate Professor of Medicine and Molecular Genetics Robert Young has called for a test where smokers can find out if they have a moderate, high or very high risk of cancer to be widely available.

He was making a submission on the Smoke-free Environments (Controls and Enforcement) Amendment Bill, which makes changes such as stopping tobacco products being displayed in stores, to Parliament's health select committee.

"It would be great to have support in having the test available through pharmacies and a subsidy would obviously help smokers be able to afford to take the test and be involved in the testing process and all that goes with it in terms of success with smoking cessation," Dr Young told NZPA after the hearing.

"I'd be very keen to have that sort of support."

He said the Government should also consider making the test -- which had a cost price of $150 - available on prescription.

"We would love to engage the doctors as well in the process of the testing. Medicalising smoking we believe will help people to be suitably engaged and treated and supported.

"There's been several decades now of public health messaging and we are left with a group of people who continue to resist the messaging. It's not personalised and basically I think they are in a form of denial and I think testing like this is a wake up call."

Dr Young told MPs that the Respiragene Test he and his group at Auckland University developed was done by a taking a swab from a smoker's mouth, which is then analysed for genetic risk factors.

The group's study found that 32 per cent of smokers who did the test quit and a large number reduced how much they smoked.

All of those who quit used nicotine replacement therapy.

Dr Young said if tests were available in chemists pharmacists could then offer support and treatment options.

He said smokers were in denial about what their habit did to their health.

"There are studies showing that smokers with lung cancer were surprised they had lung cancer and did not feel their smoking was contributing to their lung cancer and this is despite the public health messaging that currently exits."

Dr Young said he would like to see cigarettes be made a controlled substance -- statistics showed one in four smokers die by the age 69.

- NZPA