Tobacco.org

• Smoking plus gene variant raises breast cancer risk  

Women with a particular gene mutation linked to breast cancer may further raise their risk of the disease if they smoke, a study has found.

The gene in question is known as the ataxia-telangiectasia, or A-T, gene. At least 1 percent of the population carries a mutation in the gene, and women who carry mutated A-T have a higher-than-average risk of developing breast cancer.

But until now it had not been known whether smoking increases this risk even more. Studies on smoking and breast cancer in the population as a whole have generally found little or no evidence that the habit contributes to the disease.

These latest findings, however, should give women yet another reason not to smoke, according to lead researcher Dr. Michael Swift, of the Disease Insight Research Foundation in Ardsley, New York.

While the study focused only on women with an A-T mutation, most women who carry such a mutation do not know it, Swift told Reuters Health.

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