More data reveal the long-term deadly effects of chronic smoking on health, especially that of women. In a new study, it's discovered that women who smoke for about 20 years have at least 3 times the chance of dying from breast cancer, once they have it.
Speaking with Reuters through e-mail, a Miyagi Cancer Center Hospital breast oncologist Dr. Masaaki Kawai, who is also the co-author of the study, stated that their research is different since it focused more on the relationship between smoking duration and the outcomes of disease among the patients.
Dr. Kawai and his colleagues worked with at least 840 breast cancer patients admitted to the hospital within a period of 10 years since 1997. For comparison, they had women who described themselves as current and former smokers, as well as patients who never smoked at all. During the initial phase of the study, those who were still smoking had lesser weight and more invasive type of cancer. They were also younger women at less than 50 years old. However, they didn't have other complex health conditions as the others.
Within the next 7 years, the health and survival of around 400 of these women were monitored. Within the same period, almost 200 had already died for a variety of health reasons, although most succumbed to cancer.
Among those smoking women who didn't have menopause or were still young at the beginning of the study had at least 3 times chance of dying from any health problem if they smoked for around 2 decades than those who never tried smoking. Breast cancer death, meanwhile, was a little higher at 3.5 times.
Those who smoked in a shorter duration could also boost their risk of dying from the cancer, but the percentage was so small. Meanwhile, second-hand smoking didn't have the any significant risk comparable to that first-hand chronic smoking.
