Smoking linked to breast and prostate cancer

the Oncology Nurse Advisor take:

In addition to its known association with lung cancer, smoking is associated with an increased risk of breast cancer, prostate cancer, and routine infections, accounting for an additional 60,000 to 120,000 deaths each year in the U.S.

These findings were published in a study conducted by the American Cancer Society and several universities and published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Researchers observed nearly 1 million Americans aged 55 and older who took part in five studies which included the National Institutes of Health/AARP Diet and Health Study initiated in 2000, measuring health, lifestyle factors and cause of death in those they classified as smokers, never smokers, or former smokers.

They found that rate of death was two to three times higher among current smokers compared to patients who never smoked.

While most of the excess deaths in the smoking group were the result of 21 diseases already known to have a connection with smoking, such as 12 types of cancer, heart disease and stroke, the researchers also found that death rates were twice as high among smokers for conditions such as kidney failure, infections and other illnesses that were not previously associated.

Additionally, female smokers were found to have a 30 percent increased risk of dying of breast cancer compared to nonsmokers, while male smokers had an 40 percent increased risk of dying from prostate cancer compared to nonsmokers.