Metastatic Spread To Lungs More Likely For Smokers.(breast cancer)

200J JUL 5 - (NewsRx Network) -- Here's one more reason for women to avoid smoking: breast cancer patients who smoke have a much higher risk of the disease spreading to their lungs than nonsmokers, according to a study published in the June 2001 issue of the journal Chest.

Researchers did a case control study of 87 cancer patients with invasive breast cancer that had spread to the lungs. They compared these women with 174 women with breast cancer that had not spread (metastasized). Each was matched by year of diagnosis, age at diagnosis, size of primary tumor, and whether cancer was found in the lymph nodes.

Susan Murin, an associate professor of medicine at the University of California (UC) School of Medicine and Medical Center. and John Inciardi, a UC Davis Medical Center statistician, found that women whose breast cancer had spread to the lungs were twice as likely to be smokers as women whose cancer had not metastasized.

Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in women, with more than 180,000 cases diagnosed annually. Caught early, five-year survival rates exceed 80%. But once it has spread to other parts of the body. it is much more difficult to treat. Murin's study supports previous research linking smoking to a higher risk of lung metastasis among women with breast cancer and with studies showing that women who smoke are more likely to die of breast cancer than nonsmokers, even though smoking is not a risk factor for breast cancer.

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