Women who have worked, or grown up, on a farm have a higher risk of developing breast cancer, research shows.

Stirling University researchers studied 1,100 Canadian women aged 55 or younger.

The team looked at data from 564 women with breast cancer and 599 women in a control group.

They found women who had been diagnosed with breast cancer were nearly three times more likely to have grown up on a farm or worked in agriculture.

The occurrence of breast cancer was elevated among women who then went on to jobs in car manufacturing and healthcare.

Professor Andrew Watterson, from the university's Occupational and Environmental Health Research Group, said: "The evidence suggests a link between increased breast cancer risk and certain occupational settings.

"Agents present in agricultural settings may make a woman more susceptible to breast cancer, especially if she is exposed to these agents early in her life, and subsequent exposures in other settings may further compound the risk and promote disease development."

Prof Andrew Watterson, Stirling University: "The evidence suggests a link between increased breast cancer risk and certain occupational settings."

Watterson added that more work was needed to identify the agents that might increase the risk of breast cancer in women.

However, Cancer Research UK scientists said the study was too small to draw any firm conclusions.

"Breast cancer is on the rise in western society," said Henry Scowcroft of Cancer Research UK.

"But all the available scientific evidence shows that this increase is largely down to changes in lifestyle.

"These include having fewer children later, a decrease in breastfeeding, lack of exercise, higher calorie diets and increased use of hormone treatments like the pill and HRT

"Scientists have also looked at whether environmental toxins might also contribute to the increase in breast cancer, but have found no conclusive link.

"This study only looked at a relatively small number of women. This is too small a group to be able to draw any firm conclusions about a possible link between occupation and breast cancer risk.

"Nor does it say anything at all about what might be behind the observed increase in risk for some occupations."

The study is published in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

The article Breast cancer more likely in farm workers originally appeared on 999 Today