A new study has highlighted another adverse effect of smoking habit in women. The study has warned those women who have smoked a pack a day for the last 10 years against breast cancer risk.
According to the researchers, these women have a 60 percent higher risk of developing a common type of breast cancer known as estrogen receptor positive breast cancer.
The study was published in the journal Cancer.
The American Cancer Society report says, two-thirds of breast cancers are hormone receptor positive, i.e. either estrogen receptor positive or progesterone receptor positive cancers.
The study has not found any link between smoking and triple-negative breast cancer. This cancer type lacks estrogen and progesterone receptors and is the faster-growing breast cancer types.
Study researcher Dr. Christopher Li, M.D., Ph.D., of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, said in a statement, “The health woes of smoking are numerous and well known and the study has helped in adding more knowledge about its breast cancer risk.”
The study was conducted on 938 cancer-free people, 778 people with estrogen receptor positive breast cancer and 182 people with triple-negative breast cancer. All the participants suffering from cancer belonged to the age group between 20 and 44 and were diagnosed between 2004 and 2010.
