Postmenopausal women who smoke actively are at increased risk of developing breast cancer. A novel study found women who smoke in young age are sixteen percent more prone to suffer the condition after menopause, in comparison to those who have never lit up.
According to US research team the earlier a woman begin smoking the larger her risk of developing breast cancer and it continues high for twenty years after she quit the smoking. On the whole if she has smoked then she is nine percent more prone to develop the condition.
In order to find out the connection between smoking and breast cancer a team led by Dr Juhua Luo from West Virginia University and Dr Karen Margolis from the HealthPartners Research Foundation in Minneapolis analyzed data collected between 1993 and 1998 from a sample of about eight thousand women aged fifty to eighty.
The ten years follow-up of the study revealed three thousand two hundred and fifty cases of invasive breast cancer, which is the most common form of cancer affecting women globally, among the participants. The women were asked a wide range of question relating to their smoking status and their exposure to passive smoking.
The results of the study revealed that smokers have a raised risk of developing breast cancer after the menopause, while raised risk for former smokers was up to nine percent. The risk of breast cancer was the utmost in women who had been smoking for over fifty year’s compared to those who had never smoked, reported the study published in British Medical Journal.
Women, who started smoking as teenagers were also at greater risk. The study also suggested a thirty-two percent increased risk among non-smoking women exposed to wide passive smoking. Their findings emphasize the requirement of intercessions to prevent beginning of smoking, particularly at an early age, concluded Dr Margolis.