SMOKERS have turned to them in their droves as cigarettes and tobacco have become more and more expensive, but 29% of health professionals have said they would not recommend e-cigarettes to cancer patients who already smoke.

Researchers, who are presenting their findings to the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) conference in Glasgow, say they highlight the need for clearer guidance and training around the endorsement of e-cigarettes.

While they may pose some health risks, evidence has suggested they are much less harmful than smoking the real thing.

The study, funded by Cancer Research UK (CRUK), was presented by Dr Jo Brett, a senior research fellow in the faculty of health and life sciences at Oxford Brookes University.

She said: “E-cigarettes are now the most popular intervention for smoking cessation in the UK.

“However, little is known about health professionals’ knowledge and attitude towards e-cigarettes and whether they are endorsing use of e-cigarettes with cancer patients.”

Brett and her colleagues surveyed 506 health professionals across the UK, asking them about their knowledge of e-cigarettes, if they would recommend them to cancer patients who smoke and what their hospital or practice policies were on their use.

Overall, 29% said they would not recommend e-cigarettes to cancer patients who smoke; more than half said they did not know enough about them to make recommendations; a quarter did not know if they were less harmful than smoking.

On policy, 46% said their hospital or clinic did not have guidance on what advice they should give to patients about using e-cigarettes, with a further 45% saying they did not know if such guidance existed.

Brett added: “These results suggest that there’s a lack of clear policy on e-cigarettes at the local level.

“They also suggest a lack of awareness of existing evidence and national policy on e-cigarettes among doctors and nurses.

“This is coupled with a lack of time and inadequate training on smoking cessation in general, and specifically on e-cigarettes.

“Giving patients a clear message that they can reduce harm by switching from smoking to using e-cigarettes may help them cut down or quit smoking tobacco.”

Professor Linda Bauld, CRUK’s prevention expert based at the University of Edinburgh and a member of the NCRI Cancer Conference Scientific Committee, said: “Studies like this are valuable because they shed light on the real-world application of evidence and show how it is being translated in to practice.

“Although we have evidence to show that e-cigarettes are a substantially less harmful alternative to smoking tobacco for cancer patients, this survey highlights that not all health professionals know this.”