Postmenopausal Women With Periodontal Disease May Have Higher Risk Of Developing Breast Cancer

Psych Central (1/1, Pedersen) reported in continuing coverage that a new study by the American Association for Cancer Research finds that postmenopausal women who have periodontal disease may have a higher risk for developing breast cancer. According to the article, the researchers monitored nearly 74,000 postmenopausal women, finding that “the risk of breast cancer was 14 percent higher in those with periodontal disease.” In addition, “of all the women who had quit smoking within the past 20 years, those with periodontal disease had a 36 percent higher risk of breast cancer,” while “women who were smoking at the time of this study had a 32 percent higher risk if they had periodontal disease, but the association was not statistically significant.”