Cancer is frightening enough without the oft-repeated rumours and official studies that are subsequently questioned or even overturned. It can be hard to know just what to believe, but the good news is that researchers have now disproved some of the most common myths about cancer. Read on to separate the fear from the facts.

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Some early-1990s studies might have led you to think that simply being a woman increases your odds of getting lung cancer. But later research shows that women are no more vulnerable to tobacco smoke carcinogens than men. "In both women and men, current smokers of two or more packs per day were about 50 times more likely to develop lung cancer than those who had never smoked," says Neal Freedman, PhD, a National Cancer Institute Cancer Prevention Fellow, who has tracked nearly 500,000 women and men to identify the incidence of lung cancer.

Non-smoking women are also no more likely to get lung cancer than non-smoking men. But lung cancer does kill more women than any other kind, breast cancer included. And although it was found that women who smoke are about 20 times more likely to develop lung cancer than non-smoking women, consistent exposure to secondhand smoke increases a non-smoker's risk of lung cancer by 20 to 30 per cent.

So avoid secondhand smoke as much as possible, says Freedman. And if you do smoke - STOP! You'll substantially lower your risk of lung cancer, as well as heart disease and bladder and throat cancer.

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Chat all you want - talking on your mobile phone will not fill your brain with tumours, research confirms. "The radio waves emitted by mobile phones are more akin to the electromagnetic waves that your television emits than to ionizing radiations such as X-rays. They are not known to cause cancer in animals or transform cells in culture," says John D Boice Jr, scientific director of the International Epidemiology Institute, who conducted the largest long-term study about mobile phone use and cancer.

From the 1980s to 2002, Boice tracked 420,000 Danish mobile phone users and found no link between mobile phone use and the disease. Just about every other study on the subject supports Boice's findings. And it's the same for the rates of brain tumours, which haven't increased during the last 20 years, despite the massive proliferation of mobile phone use during that time.

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Ever since a flawed study in the 1980s showed a link between coffee and pancreatic cancer, just about every other study has reached the opposite conclusion. So enjoy - your morning coffee won't kill you. It might even help you live longer, according to new research, which reports that women who drank two or three cups a day - caffeinated or decaffeinated - faced a lower risk of early death from all health-related causes.

The reason? Coffee reduces the risk of heart disease-related death by decreasing inflammation and improving insulin sensitivity, explains the leader of a recent study, Esther López-Garcia, PhD, of the Department of Preventative Medicine and Public Health at Madrid's Universidad Autónoma. And that peace of mind is something any woman can drink to.

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If you have a family history of breast cancer and test negative for the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genetic mutations, you still (unfortunately) have a high risk of developing breast cancer, according to a new study by Steven A Narod, MD, director of the Familial Breast Cancer Research Unit at the Women's College Research Institute in Canada. Narod's research found that family history is a much better indicator of breast cancer risk than genetic testing, which identifies only about four per cent of all breast cancer cases in women with a family history of the disease.

"For every woman found to have a mutation," says Narod, "another four who tested normal are also in the line of fire due to family history." Women in the latter group face about a 40 per cent chance of developing cancer (compared with an 80 per cent risk among women with the mutation). The risk varies by family, however, says Narod. That 40 per cent chance applies only if three or more of your relatives - including a sister or your mother - have had breast cancer. Assuming you don't have the mutation and have only one family member who's had breast cancer, you have about a 12 or 13 per cent risk of developing the disease. Narod estimates that if no one in your family has had it, your risk drops to 10 per cent until the age of 75. If you do have a family history of breast cancer and test negative for the BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations, stay vigilant.

Watch for changes in your breasts, check yourself weekly and have regular mammograms. And speak with your GP about preventative options. And though you're not in the clear when it comes to breast cancer, you can at least cross ovarian cancer off your list of worries. Women who tested negative in Narod's study didn't develop the disease, which is common among women with the BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations.

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If popping a pill to prevent cancer sounds too good to be true - it is. A decade-long study found that women who took antioxidant supplements with beta-carotene, vitamin C or vitamin E developed cancer at the same rate as women who didn't use supplements. A US Mayo Clinic review also found that antioxidant supplements did not lower cancer risk - and beta-carotene supplements actually increased the risk of smoking-related cancers. Other studies have shown increased lung cancer rates among smokers who took vitamin A supplements and a slightly higher incidence of skin cancer among women who popped low-dose antioxidant pills.

The problem isn't the antioxidants, it's antioxidant supplements. Many researchers suspect that any beneficial properties may get lost when they're extracted from whole foods and used in tablet form. The truth is, the best way to get the antioxidants you need is from your diet. Eat at least five servings of fruit and vegetables a day to reap the benefits of antioxidants - and a myriad other nutrients.

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Stars who’ve battled breast cancer
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