Smoking may have negative effect on breast cancer survival

the Oncology Nurse Advisor take:

Premenopausal women with breast cancer are at increased risk of dying if they smoke, according to new research from Japanese investigators. This prospective study followed 848 women with breast cancer for a median of 6.7 years.

Study findings indicate that premenopausal women who smoked for more than 21.5 years had a 3.1 times higher risk of dying from any cause and a 3.4 times higher risk of dying from breast cancer.

In addition, the increased risk was especially relevant to women whose cancers expressed both the estrogen receptor and the progesterone receptor.

The authors hope their study will help in advising patients about how their smoking might affect their outcome, and encourage them to quit smoking.