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Cigarette smoking and breast cancer risk: update of a prospective cohort study

  • Epidemiology
  • Published:
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Abstract

The results of epidemiologic studies of the association between cigarette smoking and breast cancer risk have been inconsistent. In spite of the inconsistency, several recent analyses have suggested an increased risk of breast cancer among women who smoked cigarettes for a long period of time and/or who started smoking before their first pregnancy. Our analyses were conducted in the Canadian National Breast Screening Study (NBSS), a multi-center, randomized controlled trial of mammographic screening for breast cancer among 89,835 women aged 40–59 at enrollment. Participants were recruited between 1980 and 1985 from the general Canadian population. During an average of 16.1 years of follow-up, we identified 4,445 incident breast cancer cases. We used the Cox proportional hazards models to estimate multivariate rate ratios (RRs) and 95% confidence limits (CLs) for the association between cigarette smoking and breast cancer. We found that breast cancer risk was associated with the duration (40 years versus 0: RR = 1.50, 95% CL = 1.19, 1.89), intensity (40 cigarettes per day versus 0: RR = 1.20, 95% CL = 1.00, 1.44), cumulative exposure (40 pack-years versus 0: RR = 1.17, 95% CL = 1.02, 1.34), and latency of cigarette smoking (40 years since commencement of smoking versus 0: RR = 1.28, 95% CL = 1.06, 1.55), as well as smoking initiation before a first full-term pregnancy (among parous women, more than 5 years of smoking versus 0: RR = 1.13, 95% CL = 1.01–1.25). These results strongly suggest that cigarette smoking might play an important role in the etiology of breast cancer, particularly when initiated relatively early in life and when engaged in for long durations.

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Acknowledgments

We are indebted to the study participants for their dedication and commitment.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1300 Morris Park Ave, Belfer 1301D, Bronx, NY, 10461, USA

    Yan Cui & Thomas E. Rohan

  2. Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

    Anthony B. Miller

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  1. Yan Cui
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  2. Anthony B. Miller
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  3. Thomas E. Rohan
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Correspondence to Yan Cui.

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Cui, Y., Miller, A.B. & Rohan, T.E. Cigarette smoking and breast cancer risk: update of a prospective cohort study. Breast Cancer Res Treat 100, 293–299 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-006-9255-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-006-9255-3

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