Diet and breast cancer: A case‐control study in Greece

Abstract

A case-control study of the role of diet in the etiology of breast cancer was conducted in Athens, Greece. There are reasons to believe that the diet of the Greek population is characterized by greater heterogeneity than that in most countries where such studies have been undertaken. The case series consisted of 120 consecutive patients with histologically confirmed breast cancer admitted to either of two teaching hospitals over a 12-month period. The controls were 120 patients admitted to a teaching hospital for trauma and orthopedic conditions during the same period. Dietary histories concerning the frequency of consumption of 120 foods and drinks were obtained by interview. Cases reported significantly less frequent consumption of vegetables as a group and, within that group, specifically of cucumber, lettuce and raw carrot. After adjustment for potential external confounding variables and for confounding between food categories, the odds ratio for persons in the highest quintile of vegetable consumers, relative to those in the lowest quintile, was 0.09 with 95% confidence limits 0.03-0.30. That is to say, the lowest quintile of vegetable consumers had about 10 times the breast cancer risk of the highest quintile. For a score based on consumption of only the 3 specified salad items the odds ratio over the extreme quartiles was 0.12 (0.05-0.32). There was no association with consumption of fats and oils, alcohol or coffee, and no significant association with any other major food category (including alcohol and coffee) after adjustment for confounding variables.

Breastfeeding history, pregnancy experience and risk of breast cancer

“…Number of children breastfed was unassociated with risk, suggesting that the total duration of breastfeeding is most relevant to protection. These results are consistent with the results of other studies (Byers et al, 1985;Katsouyanni et al, 1986;McTieman and Thomas, 1986;Rosero-Bixby et al, 1987;Tao et al, 1988;Yuan et al, 1988;Layde et al, 1989;Wang et al, 1992;Yoo et al, 1992; UK National CC Study Group, 1993;Yang et al, 1993;Newcomb et al, 1994;Brinton et al, 1995;Romieu et al, 1996) which generally found modest protection from breast cancer with long duration of breastfeeding, especially among premenopausal women.…”

Dietary and other risk factors in women having fibrocystic breast conditions with and without concurrent breast cancer: A nested case‐control study in Shanghai, China

“…High intakes of fruits and vegetables have been associated with reduced risks of many cancers, 22 including breast cancer, [23][24][25][26][27] as well as of benign breast disease 26,[28][29][30] ; but some studies 26,[31][32][33] have shown either only a moderate, or no reduction in risk of breast cancer in association with these foods. A meta-analysis of 14 casecontrol studies and 3 cohort studies showed a reduced risk of breast cancer in relation to vegetable consumption, but with significant heterogeneity among studies, and only a weak, non-significant, association with fruit intake.…”

Dietary fat and breast cancer risk revisited: a meta-analysis of the published literature

“…The three most common foods for which risk estimates were given in these studies were determined (meat, milk and cheese) and used in the present metaanalysis. Two studies, which defined food groups in a manner that could not be adapted to this analysis, were excluded (Katsouyanni et al, 1986;Lubin et al, 1986). Risk estimates pertaining to the intake of these foods were obtained from a total of 36 papers (see Table 2 for references), 16 of which also contained relative risk estimates associated with total fat intake.…”