Hadjisavvas et al. BMC Cancer 2010, 10:447 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2407/10/447 with HRT which would explain the reverse association seen in our study. Only a weak association was observed between life- style risk factors such as exercise and smoking. It should be noted though that these parameters refer to current status only, as no information for past habits, duration or intensity of smoking were available. As a result, any association is hard to interpret due to problems with directionality of effect e.g. associations with exercise may be more likely to reflect that women diagnosed with breast cancer are less likely to currently exercise, rather than a causal relationship between lack of exer- cise and breast cancer. Conclusions The strongest associations with breast cancer risk in the Cypriot population were observed with family history of breast cancer, early menarche and breastfeeding. It is noteworthy that the protective effect of breastfeeding appeared stronger than the effect of pregnancy alone. Overall, the findings of our study corroborate with the results of previous investigations on descriptive epide- miology of risk factors for breast cancer. Nevertheless, this study presents the first report for breast cancer risk factors in Cypriot women and provides the first scienti- fic evidence using National data, for executing more tar- geted campaigns of prevention and early diagnosis in the Cypriot population. Acknowledgements We would like to thank all the study participants and acknowledge the help of the following cancer patient’s organizations: the Pancyprian Association of Cancer Patients and Friends, Europa Donna Cyprus, the Cyprus Anticancer Society as well as Dr Vaios Partasides, director of the National breast cancer screening programme and his team. We also like to express our appreciation to all the nurses and volunteers who provided valuable help towards the recruitment of the study participants. This work was supported by “Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation” grants 0104/13, 0104/17 and 32/2001 and the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics. Author details 1Department of EM/Molecular Pathology, The Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics, Nicosia, Cyprus. 2Department of Nursing, School of Health Sciences, Cyprus University of Technology, Nicosia, Cyprus. 3Bank of Cyprus Oncology Center, Nicosia, Cyprus. 4Department of Oncology, Limassol General Hospital, Limassol, Cyprus. Authors’ contributions AH participated in the conception and design of the study, in obtaining funding, as well as the collection, assembly, analysis and interpretation of data. ML participated in the conception and design of the study, the collection, assembly, analysis and interpretation of data as well as prepared the first draft of the manuscript with KK. NM offered guidance on statistical matters, performed statistical analysis and contributed towards the interpretation and presentation of the data in the manuscript. TM and RP participated in collection and assembly of data. EK, MD, PP, SM and YM provided patients and participated in data collection and interpretation. KK participated in the conception and design of the study, in obtaining funding, collection and assembly of data, analysis and interpretation of data Page 9 of 10 and drafted the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. Competing interests The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Received: 23 November 2009 Accepted: 23 August 2010 Published: 23 August 2010 References 1. Lippman ME: Breast cancer. In Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine. 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