Even Casual Smoking Increases Risk of Breast Cancer

Women who smoke more than 100 cigarettes in their lifetime are at increased risk of developing breast cancer, but women can still improve their odds of dodging the disease if they quit smoking, researchers say.

Reuters reported Dec. 11 that researcher Ivana T. Croghan of the Mayo Clinic Nicotine Research Program and colleagues compared 1,225 women with breast cancer to 6,872 who did not have the disease, looking at smoking history and other known risk factors for cancer. The findings sharply contradict past studies that found no link between smoking and breast cancer.

The study was published in the September/October 2009 issue of the Breast Journal.