Smoking in Females May Increase the Risk of Breast Cancer

The relationship between smoking and breast cancer has not been firmly established in the past. A new study released in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute is showing that women who begin smoking at an early age in life have a higher relationship of acquiring breast cancer. [1] The study analyzed data from 73,000 women and found a strong correlation between breast cancer and cigarette smoking.

The researchers studied 3721 invasive breast cancer case patients identified during a median follow-up of 13.8 years. Based on their study they concluded that started smoking at least 11 years before the birth of their first child had the highest risk of obtaining breast cancer.  The conclusion was that active smoking is associated with increased breast cancer risk for women who initiate smoking before first birth and suggest that smoking might play a role in breast cancer initiation.

“When the women entered the study in 1992, they were aged 50 to 74. They supplied information on smoking habits, past and present. At the start, about 8 percent smoked, about 36 percent had quit and about 56 percent never smoked.”Women who started smoking before their first menstrual period were 61 percent more likely [to get breast cancer than nonsmokers],” Gaudet said. Women who took up the smoking habit after their period had started but 11 or more years before giving birth were at a 45 percent higher risk, compared to nonsmokers.”[2]

“James Lacey, an associate professor of cancer etiology at the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center in Duarte, Calif. said that the window before a woman has children seems to be the period of most concentrated increased risk.”It should allow our lab colleagues to look more closely at this window.” Among the questions to be answered, he said, is this: “Is the smoking making the tissue more susceptible to other cancer-causing agents or is it starting the cancer in the breast?”[3]