Women whose breast cancer is located on the inner quadrant of the breast are at higher risk than those whose cancer is located on the outer quadrant, according to University of Utah researchers.

The researchers drew the conclusion after evaluating the role of breast tumor location on survival in more than 45,000 patients with breast cancer.

Reporting in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, they said patients with outer tumor location "demonstrated superior breast cancer specific survival" for both local stage breast cancer and cancer that had spread to the lymph nodes.

Factoring in all of the variables, the researchers said their study demonstrated that "medial tumor location adversely impacts breast cancer specific survival and overall survival."

Other sources: Journal of Clinical Oncology