A latest study has suggested that middle-aged women with gum disease have a little more chances of developing breast cancer in comparison to the ones without gum problems. Reuters wrote that women with gum disease, who smoked cigarettes or had quit the habit in the last 2 decades, were more likely to have the risk.

But the authors have mentioned that they weren’t still clear and unsure regarding what resulted in between the two factors.

Lead author Jo Freudenheim, distinguished professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Environmental Health in the University at Buffalo's School of Public Health and Health Professions in New York State, said that they weren’t aware so far about whether it's causal, and shouldn’t forget that.

She told Reuters Health that the characteristics may be related to something else that is behind both breast cancer and gum disease.

Under the Women's Health Initiative Observational Study, the researchers analyzed data linked to 73,000 postmenopausal women. At the beginning of the study, these women didn’t have breast cancer.

They found that nearly one quarter of the participating women had periodontal disease. This diseases is a chronic inflammation and infection of gum tissue located at the teeth’s base. Past studies have associated gum disease with heart disease, diabetes, stroke and many other cancers.

Post an average follow up time span of six and a half years, they discovered that 2,100 women study participants had been diagnosed with breast cancer. As per the results in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, the risk of breast cancer was 14% higher for participants suffering from gum disease.