A new study says that being obese, drinking seven or more drinks per week and smoking may increase the susceptibility of a second breast cancer.

This study was mainly focusing on estrogen receptor-positive (ER-positive) breast cancer because most breast cancers are estrogen positive which clearly means that the tumors grow when the estrogen levels rise.

This study was based on the data collected from more than 1,000 breast cancer patients which included 365 women who developed a second breast cancer in their opposite breast.

Based on the observations - women who smoked, drank more than 77 alcoholic drinks per week or were obese had more risk of developing the cancer in the opposite breast.

An editorial published with the study asks, "So does this mean that women should be advised to lose weight and avoid alcohol and smoking after breast cancer diagnosis in order to reduce the risk of a second primary breast cancer?"

Jennifer Ligibel, MD, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School said that making positive changes like loosing excess weight, moderate drinking and quitting smoking are beneficial for health on the whole, therefore breast cancer patients cant be advised to quit drinking altogether because it reduces the risk of heart attacks.