Smoking Raises Breast Cancer Risk For Postmenopausal Women

A new study based on 80,000 postmenopausal women found that first hand and second hand smoking raises the risk of breast cancer.? The study was done by Dr Juhua Luo from West Virginia University and Dr Karen Margolis from the HealthPartners Research Foundation, and published in the British Medical Journal.? Luo and Margolis analysed data from 80,000 women who were aged between 50 and 79 years.? The data came from Women's Health Initiative Observational Study of 1993-98, and included patients from 40 clinics around the United States.? Ten years after the data was taken, 3,250 women developed cases of invasive breast cancer.

The study results demonstrate that smokers have a 16% greater risk of developing postmenopausal breast cancer, compared to women who had never smoked.? Former smokers have an average of 9% increased risk for breast cancer, but the risk was worst for women who smoked since their teen years, or for 50 years or longer.? Even 20 years after a woman stops smoking, her risk remains higher than the lifetime average risk for breast cancer.

Some of the women in this study had never smoked, but had been exposed to secondhand smoke.? Those who had been exposed extensively to passive smoking for 10 years during childhood, 20 years during adulthood at home, or 10 years as an adult in the workplace had a 32% excess risk of breast cancer.? So if you had a parent that smoked when you were a kid, or a spouse or partner who smoked at home, or coworkers who smoked around you on the job, they haven't done you any favors.

Dr Karen Margolis thinks that we'd all be healthier if none of us smoked at any stage of life.? "Our findings highlight the need for interventions to prevent initiation of smoking, especially at an early age, and to encourage smoking cessation at all ages."? The bottom line is: don't smoke, avoid those who do smoke, and get help to stop smoking.? A lower than average risk of breast cancer is just one benefit you get when you stop smoking, there are many more good things about giving up smoke.

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