Smoking Leads to Breast Cancer in Young Women

Women who smoke may be at a greater risk of getting common types of breast cancer according to a study recently published in Cancer.

Researchers behind the study looked at the medical history of 960 breast cancer patients between the ages of 20 and 44 years old. These patients were diagnosed between 2004 and 2010 either for the common estrogen receptor-positive type of breast cancer or the more aggressive triple-negative type of breast cancer.

The study found that young woman who were current or recent chain-smokers  -- at least a pack a day for at least 10 years -- had a 60 percent increased risk of getting estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer. Interestingly, smoking did not appear to be linked to risk of getting the more uncommon type, triple-negative breast cancer.

Researchers theorized that some of the substances found in cigarette act like estrogens, which could promote the growth of estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer. This would mean that smoking may be the factor that makes the more common form of breast cancer "common" in the first place, but further research would be required to back such a claim.

What could be determined relatively safely is that chain-smoking is clearly linked to an increased rate of contracting breast cancer in young women. Still, it should be noted that the numbers in previous studies published in Cancer that looked at a younger sample-sets of women did not heave numbers nearly as compelling.

All the same, even if you don't add breast cancer to it, there is already a very long  list of serious health complications born of a heavy smoking habit. As more of these complications are discovered, new and renewed efforts to see smoking banned or restricted are popping up all over the country. CVS drugstores have already started removing tobacco products from their shelves. Meanwhile, the federal government has even begun its own efforts to limit tobacco addiction among youngsters.

The study was published in Cancer on Feb 10.