AKIPRESS.COM - In women over age 50, losing just four pounds and keeping the weight off can lower breast cancer risk, a new study suggests.

Researchers who reviewed data from 180,000 women found the more weight a woman lost - and kept off - the lower her risk of breast cancer, according to the report published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Women with the most sustained weight loss - 20 pounds or more - had a 26% lower risk compared to women whose weight remained stable.

Those with sustained weight loss of 4.4 to 10 pounds saw a 13% reduction in risk and those who lost 10 to 20 pounds had a 16% reduction in risk.

Even among those who lost 20 pounds or more and gained some of it back, there was still a lower risk of breast cancer compared to those whose weight remained stable.

Data for the new study came from the Pooling Project of Prospective Studies of Diet and Cancer, an international consortium which contains information on 10 cohorts of women and is designed to look at the impact of diet on cancer risk.