Year: 2009
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: BACKGROUND: Although recent reviews have suggested active smoking to be a risk factor for breast cancer, the association with passive smoke exposure remains controversial. This risk association was explored in a large prospective study of women, the California Teachers Study. METHODS: Detailed lifetime information on passive smoke exposure by setting (home, work, or social) and by age of exposure was collected in 1997 from 57,523 women who were lifetime nonsmokers and had no history of breast cancer. In the ensuing decade, a total of 1,754 women were diagnosed with invasive breast cancer. Cox proportional hazards models were fit to estimate hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) associated with several lifetime passive smoke exposure metrics. RESULTS: For all breast cancer, measures of higher lifetime passive smoking intensity and duration were associated with nonstatistically significant HRs of 1.11 to 1.14. For postmenopausal women, HRs for lifetime low, medium, and high cumulative exposure were 1.17 (95% CI, 0.91-1.49), 1.19 (95% CI, 0.93-1.53), and 1.26 (95% CI, 0.99-1.60). For women exposed in adulthood (age > or =20 years), risk was elevated at the highest level of cumulative exposure (HR, 1.18; 95% CI, 1.00-1.40), primarily among postmenopausal women (HR, 1.25; 95% CI, 1.01-1.56). A statistically significant dose response was detected when analysis was restricted to women with moderate to high levels of passive smoke exposure. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that cumulative exposures to high levels of sidestream smoke may increase breast cancer risk among postmenopausal women who themselves have never smoked tobacco products.
Language: English
Subfield: Physiology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Awards: G121795637, G1226159574, G1392909379, G148522456, G1883905839, Breast and Other Cancers in the California Teachers Cohort, G1932976417, Research and Mentoring on Energetic Factors and Cancer: Established Investigator, #14: Residual Tissue Repository to Create HIV Cancer Tumor Tissue Microrarrays , G2348368848, G2612351997, G3409930413, G3509688676, G3946782388, G4153942599, G4636760173, G529197361, G6050584259, G7278087418, G7507271246, G760599220, G799849773, Rapid Response Surveillance Study #09-5 - Constructing Geographic Areas in GIS fo, G8385479707, G87246893
OpenAlex ID: W2118408801