This week, you will be submitting a data analysis plan for your research proposal. Share your research questions and research project, as well as your anticipated type of quantitative analysis with the class. What quantitative test/s are you going to conduct on your data (t-test, correlation, chi-square, regression, ANOVA, ANCOVA, etc.) and explain why you feel this is the best test. Then, examine at least two of your classmates’ posts and comment on their chosen methods of analysis. Do you have any suggestions for improvement? Are there any concerns regarding their chosen methods?

Research Topic: For patients with lung cancer does tobacco cessation improve the chances of survival compared with patients who continue to use tobacco?

In the United States, cigarette smoking is linked to about 80% to 90% of lung cancers (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2017). Tobacco continues to be the leading cause of lung cancer due to cigarettes containing chemicals that can be toxic and damaging to the lung cells. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the US. About 50% of lung cancer patients are current smokers at the time of diagnosis, and up to 83% continue to smoke after diagnosis (Cataldo, Dubey, & Prochaska, 2010). Different studies show that those individuals who decide to continue smoking after a diagnosis of early-stage lung cancer can decrease their chances of survival.

Smoking by cancer patients and survivors causes adverse outcomes including increased overall mortality, increased cause-specific mortality, and increased risk for second primary cancers (Surgeon General’s Report, 2014). According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2014), people who quit smoking have a lower risk of lung cancer than if they had continued to smoke, but their risk is higher than the risk for people who never smoked. The purpose of this research paper is to prove that tobacco cessation improves the chances of survival for patients with lung cancer compared with those who continue to smoke.