The addition of a smoking cessation intervention to a low-dose CT lung cancer screening program appeared cost-effective, according to data presented at International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer World Conference on Lung Cancer.

A cessation program would cost less than $50,000 per quality-adjusted life year, even after multiple attempts to quit smoking, the research showed.

“We know lung cancer screening is a teachable moment,” William K. Evans, MD, FRCP, professor emeritus in the division of medical oncology at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, said during a press conference. “Individuals show up annually for screening and if they are a smoker, it’s an opportunity to speak to them again about the hazards of smoking and use an aggressive approach of smoking cessation including nicotine replacement therapy and counseling over a 12-week period. We factored these into our microsimulation model.”

Previous research linked low-dose CT screening of smokers at high risk for lung cancer to reduced lung cancer-specific and overall mortality. Data from the National Lung Screening Trial suggested smoking cessation contributed to reduced mortality.