Smoking might be associated with an increased risk of various sorts of cancers, but it doesn't result in more advanced or aggressive breast cancers, suggests an analysis of 35 years of data presented today at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology's Annual Meeting in Los Angeles. "We hypothesized that tobacco use could result in more advanced stage or more aggressive breast cancer presentation, but that doesn't appear to be the case," said Matthew Abramowitz, an oncologist at Fox Chase Cancer Center. "There is no good news about smoking, but since about 10 percent of our patients are smokers, this research provides us with some relief. The question that remains is will smoking affect their survival?"
His research took in the medical records of 6,162 breast cancer patients at the time of initial diagnosis from 1970 to 2006 at Fox Chase Cancer Center. Patient characteristics were prospectively collected by physician interview and questionnaire. Nine percent of the patients were current smokers when they were first seen for consultation.
"There was no statistically significant correlation between smoking and the stage of the disease or the aggressiveness of the tumor," concluded Abramowitz. "The remaining question is does smoking affect how long these women live?"
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Source: Fox Chase Cancer Center
