Feasibility, Adoption and Efficacy of A Virtual Reality Smoking Cessation Program for Patients Undergoing Lung Cancer Screening: A Pilot Trial

Lung cancer is the second most common cancer and the leading cause of cancer related deaths in the United States (US . Tobacco use is the leading cause of lung cancer and tobacco control continues to be the primary method of lung cancer prevention. Smoking cessation interventions (SCIs) are strongly recommended by screening guidelines and have a class A recommendation by the United States Preventive Services Task Force. Currently, a variety of smoking cessation interventions exist, and evidence suggests that pharmacotherapy, such as nicotine replacement therapy, in combination with behavioral interventions is more effective than either intervention alone. Many individuals, however, prefer not to use or are unable to use pharmacotherapy. A variety of behavioral interventions exist to aid in smoking cession. Recently, virtual reality (VR) has emerged as a possible tool to conduct behavior interventions. Previous research has demonstrated that use of VR can improve patient engagement in a variety of chronic disease interventions. Little is known however about the feasibility and adoption of VR in smoking cessation, especially among individuals at high risk for lung cancers. VR based platforms utilize 'cue exposure therapy'. Given that cravings are often triggered by external factors, or cues, cue exposure therapy exposes individuals to repeated drug-related cues and provides them with tools to eliminate cue-induced cravings. Given the inability for all individuals to use pharmacotherapy there remains a critical need to improve adherence to and efficacy of behavioral interventions for smoking cessation. To address this unmet need, the investigators propose, as pilot study, to enroll patients undergoing routine lung cancer screening and who are not interested in or cannot take pharmacologic therapies for smoking cession, to participate in VR based smoking cessation therapy.