Breast cancer is the commonest cancer in UK women
Lifestyle changes and screening have shifted the type of breast cancers women are diagnosed with over the past couple of decades, research suggests.
Women are now more likely to have hormone-dependent, slow-growing tumours, a comparison of tissue samples from the 1980s and 1990s shows.
The Scottish researchers also found improved survival over time, the
British Journal of Cancer reported.
More than 40,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer in the UK annually.
Previous studies have suggested that breast cancers may be more commonly hormone-dependent than in the past.
Specifically it is thought that oestrogen-receptor positive cancers may be on the rise.