The objective of this study is to evaluate the impact of a loved one?s lung cancer diagnosis on their relatives? willingness to seek and process information related to risks of smoking, genetic susceptibility, and smoking cessation services. The goal is to recruit 150 relatives of lung cancer patients. First- or second-degree blood relatives who are current smokers between the ages 18 to 55 are eligible for the study. Because these relatives will be living throughout the United States, a web-based research protocol will be employed. A recruiter will approach patients at Moffitt and assess their willingness to do a telephone survey to enumerate the number of their relatives who smoke and determine if they will give permission to contact none, some, or all of these relatives. The recruitment for this study will be conducted in partnership with ongoing recruitment activities for a five-year, NCI-funded randomized controlled intervention trial at Duke University Medical Center. As part of the educational session, participants will be offered free genetic susceptibility testing for glutathione S transferase. Participants who accept testing will receive their result online. Participants who decline testing will be retained in the study and offered all the same smoking cessation services. Survey assessments will include questions about risk perceptions, beliefs and attitudes related to lung cancer, emotional responses to the patient?s diagnosis, smoking history, motivation to quit, reactions to information about smoking and genetic risk, interest in genetic testing, comprehension of susceptibility feedback, and interest in receiving smoking cessation services. The primary outcome variable will be seeking free smoking cessation services. Participating relatives will be surveyed by telephone six and twelve months after completing the online protocol. The study has been ongoing for 18 months and over 500 eligible relatives have been identified by lung cancer patients; 115 relatives have been eligible and have agreed to review the educational information about lung cancer. Recruitmenthas closed and six-month follow-up surveys are still underway. Several manuscripts and scientific presentations are planned for the coming year.
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