Smoking is not an easy habit to break, and of the many methods tried, only a handful seem to work. Of the methods that do seem to work -- nicotine-replacement products; bupropion drugs; counseling; classes; calling a helpline or talking to a health professional -- younger smokers between the ages of 16 and 24 years who smoke and try to quit only use one of the recommended methods of help by talking to a professional. Because of this, younger smokers are less likely to be successful in quitting, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

During the 2003 National Youth Smoking Cessation Survey, the CDC found that younger smokers most often tried to quit smoking by cutting back on the number of cigarettes they smoked each day; not buying cigarettes; exercising; using the buddy system and trying to quit with a friend; telling others they were quitting and changing to a lighter brand of cigarette, switching to chewing tobacco, snuff, or other tobacco products. None of these methods are recommended by the US Public Health Service.

According to the National Youth Smoking Cessation Survey, 77 percent of younger smokers have tried to quit at least once without success. Over a third have tried to quit smoking numerous times without success. Researchers suggest that many younger smokers may need help with other high-risk behaviors such as binge drinking; depression or ADD/ADHD.

If you are a younger smoker who is trying to quit, the CDC encourages you to call 1-800-QUIT-NOW or talk to your physician about methods that might lead to more success. The 2-page summary of the National Youth Smoking Cessation Survey is available as a pdf document.

Currently, cancer vaccines to treat cancer have reported a mere 2 to 3 percent success rate in clinical trials. Researchers defend the vaccines by suggesting that the lack of higher success rate are a result of the way vaccines are tested, not the fact that the vaccines are ineffective. In U.S. News & World Report, Do cancer treatment vaccines really work?, Josh Fischman takes a simple and straightforward look at the difficulty in proving a cancer vaccine will work. Because ideally, a drug needs to be shown to be effective and safe, before it is approved as a treatment for cancer. That's why we have clinical trials.

But, as Fischman points out, the problem as to why cancer vaccines to treat cancer are showing such poor results in clinical trials is a two-handed issue. First, the cancer vaccines are being tested on cancer patients who have already been through treatments for cancer. Cancer treatments, like chemotherapy and radiation, seriously damage the immune system because they do not target just the cancer cells, but healthy cells. So, perhaps it is too late to revive what is left of an exhausted immune system by the time a cancer vaccine is tried. On the other hand, if a cancer patient is doing well with conventional cancer treatment, Fischman says, "It'd be cruel to take someone off a drug that's helping them and ask them to try an experimental drug that may not help at all." Until they can devise another way to test cancer vaccines for treating existing cancer, the vaccines seem doomed to continual failure in clinical trials.

In a related post, Cancer vaccine: a peek behind the cancer business curtain, a medical and healthcare technology consulting firm looks at the challenges facing cancer vaccines ever coming to market because of clinical trial failures.