Tobacco Smoke and Breast Cancer
A lot of studies showed that smoking can increase risk of breast cancer. But a recent study found that even young women exposed to second-hand smoke are at increased risk of breast cancer, a Canadian expert panel on tobacco smoke and breast cancer risk has concluded.
Dr. Anthony Miller, associate director of research at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health, said: “Even moderate exposure to passive smoking, such as living or working with a smoker early in life, increases a woman’s risk of breast cancer when she is in her 30s, 40s and 50s.”
Canadian experts found that active smoking increases the risk of breast cancer in both pre- and post-menopausal women, while exposure to second-hand smoke increases the risk of breast cancer especially in pre-menopausal women.
They added that many young women are exposed to second-hand tobacco smoke, many continue to take up smoking at a young age and the average age of first childbirth is older than in the past, which may extend the period of increased vulnerability.
The experts which make this investigation were struck to provide an up-to-date synthesis of research on smoking and exposure to second-hand smoke and breast cancer, the most commonly diagnosed cancer in Canadian women.
Statistics showed that 5.9 million people or 22 percent of the Canadian population aged 12 and older, were smokers in 2005.
Though, they’ve fallen, smoking rates remained still highest among both men and women in the age group 18 to 34.
As it is known cigarette smoking is an established cause of a variety of cancer types, but its role in breast cancer etiology was not clear till now. Now, even this recent research showed that even second-hand smoke can cause breast cancer especially in pre-menopausal women.
