Science / Medicine : Smoking and Breast Cancer

There appears to be little basis for the theory that smoking by teen-age girls reduces the risk of breast cancer later in life, scientists said last week.

A Harvard University study of women ages 30 to 55 found no statistical link between smoking and the risk of breast cancer. The study was published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Some researchers have suggested that heavy smoking by young women might lower the risk of breast cancer by reducing the body’s production of estrogen while the breasts are developing. Estrogen controls female sexual development, but some studies have suggested that it also may promote the development of cancer.

The study looked at female nurses who were cancer-free in 1976. The nurses’ smoking habits were closely tracked for 10 years.

By 1986, many cases of breast cancer had been documented in the group but there was no association between current smoking and risk of cancer.