Female smokers have a 19 percent increased risk of bowel cancer Women who smoke may be at a higher risk of developing cancer than men, new research has discovered. Norwegian investigators looked at the medical records of 600,000 patients and found that the risk of bowel cancer linked to smoking was twice as high in females than males.
Women who smoke had a 19 percent greater risk of the disease while men had a 9% higher risk, Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention reports.
During the study, almost 4,000 of the participants developed bowel cancer. It was noted that women who had been smoking since they were 16 or younger and those who had smoked for decades were at a substantially increased risk of developing bowel cancer.
The research, carried out at The University of Tromso in Norway is reported to be the first study of its kind to identify female smokers who smoke less than males still get more colon cancer.
However, the study failed to account for other factors which could also affect the risk of this type of cancer, including diet and alcohol consumption.
But the findings do suggest that women may be biologically more vulnerable to the toxic side effects of cigarette smoke.
Past research has already found that women who pick up the habit increase their risk of heart attack more than men, but it is still unclear why.