Use of nicotine can advance the development of breast cancer, a study published this week in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute concluded.

While lead author Dr. Yuan-Soon Ho said that the results found "imply" that nicotine can indeed be a factor in development of breast cancer, she mentioned that the study's small and limited sample size should not be ignored. The study looked at 276 breast tumor samples submitted by anonymous donors to Taipei Medical University Hospital. All of the samples were submitted by Asian patients. 

A second study, also published in the JNCI determined that women who drank at least one alcoholic beverage daily were more likely to develop hormone-positive breast cancers. It looked at nearly 88,000 postmenopausal women between the ages of 50 and 79 from 1993 to 1998. 

"We found that women who drank one or more drinks per day had about double the risk of lobular type breast cancer, but no increase in their risk of ductal type breast cancer," the study's authors wrote. Ductal breast cancer is the most common type of breast cancer, accounting for roughly 70 percent of all cases. 

"It was a little bit surprising that for [the] most common type of breast cancer...we didn't find any association with alcohol," Dr. Christopher Li, the study's lead author said, according to HealthDay News. 

To learn more:
- read this HealthDay News article on the nicotine study
- here's the abstract of the nicotine study in the JNCI
- check out this editorial published alongside the study
- read this memo about the nicotine study
- here's the HealthDay piece on the alcohol study
- read the abstract of the alcohol study in the JNCI
- read this memo about the alcohol study