Addressing the dual challenge: Managing smoking cessation in patients with diabetes
Cristina Russo, Magdalena Walicka, Gal Cohen, Carlo Maria Bellanca, Giulio Geraci, Pasquale Caponnetto, Dario Elvio Noviello, Roberta Chianetta, Jacob George, Roberta Sammut, Eward Franek, Riccardo Polosa
Cristina Russo, Ashford and Saint Peter’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Chertsey KT16 0PZ, United Kingdom
Magdalena Walicka, Department of Human Epigenetics, Mossakowski Medical Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw 02-106, Poland
Magdalena Walicka, Eward Franek, Department of Internal Diseases, Endocrinology and Diabetology, National Medical Institute of the Ministry of the Interior and Administration, Warsaw 02-507, Poland
Gal Cohen, Rose Research Center, Raleigh, NC 27617, United States
Carlo Maria Bellanca, Department of Biomedical and Biotechnological Sciences, Section of Pharmacology, University of Catania, Catania 95123, Sicilia, Italy
Carlo Maria Bellanca, Clinical Toxicology Unit, University Hospital of Catania, Catania 95123, Sicilia, Italy
Carlo Maria Bellanca, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Section of Neuroscience and Clinical Pharmacology, University of Cagliari, Cagliari 09121, Sardegna, Italy
Giulio Geraci, Riccardo Polosa, Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, Kore University of Enna, Enna 94100, Sicilia, Italy
Pasquale Caponnetto, Riccardo Polosa, Center of Excellence for the Acceleration of Harm Reduction, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Catania, Catania 95123, Sicilia, Italy
Pasquale Caponnetto, Department of Science of Education, Section of Psychology, University of Catania, Catania 95123, Sicilia, Italy
Dario Elvio Noviello, Clinica Medica “A. Murri”, Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria Policlinico, Catania 95123, Sicilia, Italy
Dario Elvio Noviello, Department of Precision and Regenerative Medicine and Ionian Area, University of Bari Aldo Moro Medical School, Bari 70100, Italy
Roberta Chianetta, Department of Health Promotion Sciences, Maternal and Infant Care, Internal Medicine and Medical Specialties, University of Palermo, Palermo 90127, Sicilia, Italy
Jacob George, Molecular and Clinical Medicine, University of Dundee Medical School, Dundee DD1 9SY, United Kingdom
Roberta Sammut, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Malta, Valletta 2080, Malta
Eward Franek, Department of Human Epigenetics, Mossakowski Medical Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw 02-668, Poland
Author contributions: Russo C, Walicka M, and Polosa R conceptualization, drafting the manuscript, and overall project supervision; Cohen G, Bellanca CM, Geraci G, Caponnetto P, Noviello DE, Chianetta R, George J, Sammut R, and Franek E critical revisions to the manuscript; Cohen G, Bellanca CM, Geraci G, and Sammut R formulation of search queries, contribution to methodology and database searches. All the authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Supported by the NextGenerationEU of the European Union, No. PNRR 341/2022.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Polosa R is a fully tenured Professor of Internal Medicine at the University of Catania (Italy) and the Medical Director of the Institute for Internal Medicine at the same University. He has received the following European Union and governmental competitive grants: U-BIOPRED, AIR-PROM, Integral Rheumatology & Immunology Specialists Network, Ministero dell’Università e della Ricerca PNRR 3277/2021, PNRR 341/2022, and PNRR 411/2021 funded by the NextGenerationEU of the European Commission. He has also received investigator-initiated grants from the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World, Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, CV Therapeutics, NeuroSearch A/S, Sandoz, Merk Sharp & Dohme, Boehringer Ingelheim, Novartis, Arbi Group Srl., Duska Therapeutics, and Forest Laboratories. He is the founder of the Center for Tobacco Prevention and Treatment and of the Center of Excellence for the Acceleration of Harm Reduction at Catania University. He has received consultancy fees from Pfizer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Duska Therapeutics, Forest Laboratories, CV Therapeutics, Sermo Inc., GRG Health, Clarivate Analytics, Guidepoint Expert Network, and GLG Group. He receives textbook royalties from Elsevier and EDRA. He is also the Chair of the European Technical Committee for Standardization on “Requirements and test methods for emissions of electronic cigarettes” (CEN/TC 437; WG4) and scientific advisor of the nonprofit Foundation RIDE2Med. Walicka M declares the following: Payment or honoraria for lectures or educational events: Sanofi, Teva, Eli Lilly Support for attending meetings and/or travel: Sanofi. Cohen G is an employee of the Rose Research Center (RRC), an independent contract research organization that performs studies pertaining to smoking cessation and tobacco harm reduction. The participation of Cohen G was funded by RRC salary, and not by any external entity. Other RRC research support: National Institute on Drug Abuse; Global Action to End Smoking, Inc. (formerly Foundation for a Smoke-Free World, Inc.), a United States nonprofit 501(c)(3) private foundation; Nicotine BRST LLC; JUUL Labs; Altria; Embera Neurotherapeutics, Inc.; Otsuka Pharmaceutical; Swedish Match, Philip Morris International. Cohen G was previously a principal scientist at JUUL labs. He was also previously employed at Nektar Therapeutics, whose pipeline included an inhaled nicotine replacement therapy, and the Diabetes Division of Medtronic. Stock holdings in Qnovia, a developer of an inhaled nicotine replacement therapy, and JUUL Labs. All the other authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the ori
ginal work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See:
https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/ Corresponding author: Riccardo Polosa, MD, PhD, Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, Kore University of Enna, Viale delle Olimpiadi 1, Enna 94100, Sicilia, Italy.
polosa@unict.it
Received: January 18, 2025
Revised: April 2, 2025
Accepted: November 12, 2025
Published online: December 15, 2025
Processing time: 332 Days and 11.2 Hours
