Cigarette Smoking and the Risk of Pulmonary Metastasis from Breast Cancer: A Case-Control Study

Aiming to evaluate the association between cigarette smoking and risk of pulmonary metastasis from breast cancer, 98 fema­le patients with unilateral breast cancer which had metastasi­zed to the lung (study group) and 199 female patients who had primary breast cancer without pulmonary metastasis (control group) were investigated. The two groups were compared for cigarette smoking history, age at diagnosis, menopausal status, family history, other organ metastasis. Chi-square and Fisher’s exact tests were used in the analyses. There were no statistical differences between the study and control groups in age at di­agnosis, menopausal status, family history and other organ me­tastasis. When the two groups were compared for smoking be­havior; the number of eversmoker patients in the control gro­up was found to be greater than that in the study group, but the difference was not of statistical significance. In conclusion, a statistical difference was not found between cigarette smoking and the development of pulmonary metasta­tic disease in breast cancer.