A research team from Stockholm, Sweden, have found that there is a greater risk of developing breast cancer in women who are underweight as young girls. The team at the Karolinski Institute found that girls who were underweight at the age of 7 years old were more likely to develop particularly aggressive types of breast cancer than those women who were slightly overweight at the age of seven.

The research studies findings are to be published in the Breast Cancer Research journal and its findings are to led to childhood photographs being used to assess the risk of breast cancer in women.

This new research into breast cancer may change the way doctors may need to estimate the risk in women as previous research had found that larger overweight women were more likely to contract breast cancer and were 50% more likely to die from the disease.

The Swedish team are unaware of why skinny girls are less likely to contract more aggressive forms of breast cancer. Other risk factors associated with the development of breast cancer include the birth weight of the woman as well as their current body mass index (BMI).