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Old 03-03-2005, 02:42 PM   #1
Christine MH
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I found this interesting because HER2+ BC tends to affect premenopausal women more than BC in general (and it is also a much higher proportion of BC in East Asia than in the West).

Smoking Ups Risk of Premenopausal Breast Cancer

"Both active and "passive" smoking (exposure to secondhand smoke) increase the risk of breast cancer in premenopausal but not postmenopausal women, a study of middle-aged Japanese women suggests.

The investigators think that higher levels of estrogens present in the body of premenopausal women may act jointly with external cancer-causing agents, such as tobacco, to fuel the development of breast cancer"...

"Compared with never-active smokers with no exposure to secondhand smoke, ever-smokers who had yet to enter menopause had a greater than 3-fold elevated risk of developing breast cancer. The elevated risk of developing breast cancer among ever-smokers was not observed in postmenopausal women.

Premenopausal but not postmenopausal women who had never smoked but had been exposed to secondhand smoke had a 2.6-fold increased risk of developing breast cancer."
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