Lifestyle responsible for 30 percent of breast cancer cases

Eating less and exercising more may drastically reduce breast cancer cases, according to a new study presented at a European beast cancer conference in Barcelona.

Carlo La Vecchia from the University of Milan said if women were thinner and exercised more, the risk of getting breast cancer could be reduced by 25 to 30 percent.

In the United States, breast cancer is expected to be diagnosed in more than 170,000 women each year and the disease kills about 50,000 women annually, according to cancer.gov. One in every eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer.

One early study led by British researchers found obese women were at 60 percent higher risk of developing any cancer than women with normal weight, according to media reports.

One possibility for the breast cancer and obesity link is that the fatter women are, the more estrogen they produce, according to Vecchia.  Estrogen is known to promote the growth of breast cancer.