PHILADELPHIA (May 30, 2023)—Fox Chase Cancer Center has been accredited by the Smoking Treatment Accreditation & Recognition (STAR) program, a tobacco treatment initiative funded through a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
“The STAR program will really help us make a difference in the lives of smokers in the greater Philadelphia area. Although lung cancer rates have been declining in recent years, the disease is still the leading cause of cancer-related deaths nationwide,” said Donna Edmondson, CRNP, AOCNP, NCTTP, clinical director of the Tobacco Treatment Program in Fox Chase’s Section of Pulmonary, Sleep, and Critical Care Medicine.
“It is important to us as an organization to do what we can to develop preventative and treatment tools to create a brighter future,” she added. At Fox Chase, a multidisciplinary team that includes tobacco research faculty from the Cancer Prevention and Control research program and the Community Outreach Office has worked on establishing and evaluating a robust in-house program.
The STAR program is managed by the Health Promotion Council, a subsidiary of Public Health Management Corporation, in partnership with the University of Pennsylvania and other regional advisory panel member organizations.
STAR seeks to facilitate the integration of tobacco dependence treatment into existing healthcare workflows in order to elevate the level of treatment available to community members.
The need for such programs was underscored by a recent study published on the JAMA Open Network. Several studies have showed that quitting smoking can help people live longer, but this new study found that stopping smoking can have health benefits even for those who develop lung cancer.
The study, which looked at nearly 5,600 patients with non-small cell lung cancer, found that those who quit smoking before diagnosis had significantly better survival rates than those who continued to smoke. The longer the patients went without smoking, the better their odds of survival.
The STAR process focuses on tobacco-related efforts that are expected to improve overall survival, reduce hospital readmissions, and shorten hospital stays among those who use tobacco.
The STAR team provides extensive technical assistance to all organizations who seek accreditation and supports them in meeting all program requirements.
“We are thrilled to have Fox Chase Cancer Center as a part of this program. Their work in cancer treatment is directly impacting the community and they are a resource when addressing the issues of tobacco that we face here in Philadelphia,” said Frank T. Leone, MD, MS, director of Penn Medicine’s Comprehensive Smoking Treatment Programs and professor of medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.
The STAR program is guided by a diverse advisory board, including representatives from Health Partners Plans, Aetna Better Health of Pennsylvania, the University of Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Society of Addiction Medicine, the Philadelphia County Medical Society, the Greater Philadelphia Business Coalition on Health, the Community Care Behavioral Health Organization, and the Pennsylvania Psychiatric Society.
“These programs are established to make a difference, build a fresh air future for our youth, and provide tobacco use treatment and prevention services that are proven to be successful alternative methods to deal with stressors that lead to tobacco use,” said Jamie Magee, director of Tobacco Prevention and Control Services at the Health Promotion Council.