Smoking can hamper common treatment for breast cancer

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/lu-sch061716.php

Public Release: 17-Jun-2016
Smoking can hamper common treatment for breast cancer
Lund University

We know that individuals who smoke take major health risks. Now a new research study from Lund University in Sweden shows that common treatment for breast cancer works less well in patients who smoke, compared to non-smokers.

The study is published in the British Journal of Cancer.

"Smokers who were treated with aromatase inhibitors had a three times higher risk of recurrence of breast cancer compared with the non-smokers who got the same treatment. The study also showed that the smokers also had an increased risk of dying, either from the breast cancer or from other illnesses, during the time we followed them", says Helena Jernström, associate professor and researcher who, together with trainee physician Mia Persson, is the principal investigator behind the study published in the British Journal of Cancer.

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One finding which surprised the researchers was that so few patients quit smoking during their treatment, despite being informed of the importance of doing so. Out of a total of 206 smokers, only ten per cent stopped smoking in the first year after their surgery, a number so small that the researchers could not study whether giving up smoking during treatment had any effect.

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