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Emerging evidence suggests that active and passive smoking are associated with breast cancer risk. In this report from the prospective cohort component of the Women's Health Initiative, investigators assessed the association between active and passive smoking and risk for invasive breast cancer among 80,000 postmenopausal women (age range, 50–79).
During mean follow-up of 10.3 years, 3520 women developed invasive breast cancer. Compared with never-smokers, former smokers had 9% higher risk and current smokers had 16% higher risk for breast cancer. Breast cancer risk rose with intensity and duration of smoking. Among former smokers, elevated breast cancer risk persisted for up to 20 years after quitting. Compared with women who reported no ex…