Dr. Ivana T. Croghan and colleagues have a new study in The Breast Journal that shows that just smoking 100 cigarettes in a woman's life will increase her chances that she will develop breast cancer substantially.


According to Corghan, "a woman smoker can reduce her risk of breast cancer by stopping smoking as soon as possible."


The study compared the smoking history as well as other breast cancer factors such as weight and alcohol intake, of 1,225 women who developed breast cancer and 6,872 who did not during the first year after their first visit to the Mayo Clinic Breast Clinic.


Along with smoking as being a major factor to developing breast cancer other factors that raised the risk for developing breast cancer included using oral contraceptives for 11 years or longer and postmenopausal hormone therapy. While these factors increased the chances, having a hysterectomy decreased the odds of developing breast cancer by 35%.


More research is being done on smoking such as second hand smoke factors and the amount smoked during a lifetime and the links to breast cancer.