Smoking causes many types of deadly cancers, but postmenopausal women who smoke seem to gain some protection from cancer of the endometrium -- the inner lining of the uterus -- Reuters reported July 15.

Researchers at Nanjing Medical University in China found a 29-percent reduced risk of endometrial cancer among postmenopausal women who smoked, but no reduction of risk among premenopausal women.

Endometrial cancer may be triggered by estrogen, and cigarette smoking is suspected of having an anti-estrogen effect.

The review of previously published data by researcher Bin Wang and colleagues appears in the June 2008 issue of the American Journal of Medicine.