Overweight Women At Greater Breast Cancer Risk

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How much is a woman's chance of developing breast cancer? It depends on a variety of factors, including family history, age, time of menopause and whether she has had children.

However, a new study has pointed out that older women that are precariously overweight are at a significant higher risk even than those who drink heavily or smoke to develop breast cancer.

Based on data published by Cancer Research UK, one in eight women in the UK develop breast cancer in their lifetime, and the majority of these tumours are 'hormone sensitive' meaning their growth is fuelled by hormones.

Studies display that post-menopausal women with high degrees of oestrogen and testosterone have between two and 3 times the incidence of breast cancer than women with the lowest levels.

The Oxford University group studied the health records of almost 6,300 post-menopausal women, looking for factors that might explain why some developed hormone sensitive breast cancer when others didn't.

A woman's weight had the greatest bearing on a woman's sex hormone levels, soon followed by smoking and the consumption of alcohol.

Women who are overweight or obese had high hormones levels like oestrogen and progesterone.

So too did women who drank more than two and a half units of alcohol every day or smoked more than 15 cigarettes every day.

Analysts say women should be made aware of these changeable risk factors.

"This is a significant study because it helps to show how alcohol and weight may affect the levels of hormone. Understanding their role in breast cancer is extremely important and this analysis sheds light on how they could affect the risk of breast cancer," the BBC quoted Dr Julie Sharp, of Cancer Research UK, as saying.

"We know that the risk of breast cancer can depend on family history and getting older, but there're also things women can do help reduce disease risk. Maintaining a healthy body weight and reducing consumption of alcohol are important to reducing the risk of breast cancer," she said.

The resultswere published in the British Journal of Cancer.

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More about breast cancer risks, breast cancer prevention knowledge and the latest breast cancer treatment information.



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