Smoking is associated with a number of different diseases, like recurrent respiratory infections, heart disease, stroke and, most importantly, cancer. It is often said that cigarettes are the lead cause of preventable death in the world, but what often is not known is that smoking can cause cancer almost anywhere in the body, including breast cancer.

It is very important to make clear that the use of the term ‘smoking’ includes the many forms of tobacco consumption available to the public, like cigarettes or shisha, and that secondhand smoking (also known as ‘passive smoking’) is also a risk factor. Secondhand smoking is what happens when we inhale the smoke breathed out by other people, or the smoke that comes out from burning tobacco products. In other words, it is very important to avoid smoking or staying in a closed room when someone else is smoking.

According to breastcancernow.org , the younger a woman starts smoking, higher may be the risk of developing breast cancer. The association between smoking and developing breast cancer was higher in women with a family history, also: in the reported study, that risk was elevated by 35%. 

To avoid or quit smoking is very important not only to prevent breast cancer, but also during the treatment of the disease: the inflammation and immune system activation caused by tobacco is very distressful to the body, and makes the body vulnerable in a number of ways (for example, to certain infections). Treating cancer is already very exhausting to all of our systems, and so smoking can increase the risk of complications that arise from the treatment , like damage to the lungs, difficulty recovery from surgery and higher risk of blood cloths (when taking hormonal medicines), that can also be very dangerous.

In conclusion, smoking and secondhand smoking can negatively affect our bodies in a number of ways, being an important risk factor in the development of breast cancer and also being very disrupting during treatment. The safest action is to avoid or quit smoking, if it is already a habit. If you smoke and wish to stop, ask your doctor for guidance.

At the end your health is very important, and you have to take care of yourself.