Women who have smoked for a long time are more at risk to dying early if they contract breast cancer, says a study conducted by Japanese researchers published in Cancer Science.

It is observed in a research conducted by a team led by Dr. Masaaki Kawai, a breast cancer specialist at Miyagi Cancer Center Hospital, that women aged between 20 and 44 were 60 percent more likely to be affected by estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer when they smoked an average of a pack of cigarette every day for ten years than those who did not smoke or had quit smoking, reported  Empire State Tribune.

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The researchers monitored 848 women newly diagnosed of breast cancer and treated at Miyagi Cancer Center Hospital between 1997 and 2007. The investigators also observed that the women who smoked had the tendency to develop advanced breast cancers than women who never smoked or had already quit smoking, reported MF Monitor.

The average age of women diagnosed positive for breast cancer was 49 and that of women who had quit smoking was 53 and those who never smoked was 58. The women who smoked during the course of the treatment were found to weigh less than women in other categories. During the study period of about seven years, researchers witnessed 170 deaths of all causes including 132 breast cancer deaths.

It is estimated that women who smoked for more than 21 years were three times likely to die of various causes and three and a half times likely to die of breast cancer compared to those who never engaged in smoking.

Peggy Reynolds, a researcher at the Cancer Prevention Institute of California and Stanford University School of Medicine, said, "There are now quite a few studies suggesting that active smokers diagnosed with breast cancer have poorer survival - not to mention accumulating evidence that smokers may have a greater risk of developing breast cancer," according to Reuters.

Mia Gaudet, strategic director of breast and gynecologic research at the American Cancer Society in Atlanta, noted in an email to Reuters that "regardless of whether or not a woman has breast cancer, quitting smoking is likely to be the best lifestyle change a woman can make to improve her health."

Tagsbreast cancer, smoking, cancer death, quit smoking, Tumours