Nutrient dietary patterns and the risk of breast and ovarian cancers

Abstract

The issue of diet and breast and ovarian cancers has been considered in terms of foods and nutrients, but rarely in terms of dietary patterns. We examined the associations between dietary patterns and breast and ovarian cancers in 2 Italian multicentric case-control studies. Cases were 2,569 breast cancers and 1,031 ovarian cancers hospitalized in 4 Italian areas between 1991 and 1999. Controls were 3,413 women from the same hospital network. Dietary habits were investigated through a validated food-frequency questionnaire. Dietary patterns were identified on a selected set of nutrients through principal component factor analysis. Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for both cancers were estimated using unconditional multiple logistic regression models on quartiles of factor scores and continuous factor scores. We identified 4 major dietary patterns named Animal products, Vitamins and fiber, Unsaturated fats and Starch-rich. The animal products pattern and the unsaturated fats pattern were inversely associated with breast cancer (OR 5 0.74, 95% CI: 0.61-0.91 and OR 5 0.83, 95% CI: 0.68-1.00, respectively, for the highest consumption quartile), whereas the starch-rich pattern was directly associated with it (OR 5 1.34, 95% CI: 1.10-1.65). The vitamins and fiber pattern was inversely associated with ovarian cancer (OR 5 0.77, 95% CI: 0.61-0.98), whereas the starch-rich pattern was directly associated with it (OR 5 1.85, 95% CI: 1.37-2.48). In conclusion, the starch-rich pattern is potentially an unfavorable indicator of risk for both breast and ovarian cancers, while the animal products and the vitamins and fiber patterns may be associated with a reduced risk of breast and ovarian cancers, respectively. ' 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.Key words: dietary patterns; factor analysis; nutrients; breast cancer; ovarian cancer Despite considerable research, the issue of diet and breast and other female hormone-related cancers is still open to discussion. Several studies have examined the role of selected micronutrients, macronutrients, foods, energy and alcohol intakes. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] Apart from a consistent direct association between alcohol intake and breast cancer 10,11 most of the other relations remain controversial. Fewer investigations have addressed the role of dietary patterns. [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] Still, in the presence of a large number of possible, but moderate associations, the integration of several dietary exposures into single dietary patterns may overcome problems of multiple testing and high correlations between various dietary exposures. Two approaches have been used for the definition of a dietary pattern. The a posteriori approach builds only on the specific dietary data under consideration and mainly relies on principal component or factor analysis techniques. The a priori approach builds on the existing knowledge about the favorable or adverse effects of various dietary constituents. 20 We have applied exploratory factor analysis to 2 multicentric case-control studies...

Dietary patterns and breast cancer risk among women

“…The E3N-EPIC prospective cohort study has also found that a 'Western-alcohol' pattern characterized by meat products, French fries, appetizers, rice/pasta, potatoes and canned fish may be positively associated with breast cancer risk (hazard ratio 5 1?20, 95 % CI 1?03, 1?38) among French women (4) . Only two studies have found that a 'pork, processed meat and potato' dietary pattern (relative risk 5 0?69, 95 % CI 0?52, 0?92) (6) and an 'animal products' pattern (OR 5 0?74, 95 % CI 0?61, 0?91) (15) have negative associations with breast cancer risk, while other cohort studies have failed to show any significant relationship (7,(10)(11)(12)(13)16) . Several biological mechanisms may explain the positive association between unhealthy dietary patterns and breast cancer risk.…”

Nutrient Dietary Patterns and Gastric Cancer Risk in Italy

“…We conducted the analyses on a selected set of 28 major micro-and macronutrients, as in our previous work on breast and ovarian cancers (18). We first evaluated their correlation matrix to determine if it was factorable through both visual inspection of the matrix and statistical procedures such as Bartlett's test of sphericity (using the Z approximation to the χ 2 distribution of the test statistic), Kaiser-MeyerOlkin measure, and individual measures of sampling adequacy (19).…”

Nutrient patterns and their relation to general and abdominal obesity in Iranian adults: findings from the SEPAHAN study

“…Therefore, a pattern of nutrients may provide more information about probable underlying mechanisms. In contrast to food patterns, few studies have considered nutrient patterns in relation to chronic diseases [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. The approach of nutrient patterns might provide novel insight into the possible relations between nutrients in the etiology of chronic conditions.…”

“…Food patterns affect the risk of chronic diseases through nutrient intakes, and it is, most likely, a combination of nutrients, rather than an individual one, that will affect the risk [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. Therefore, a pattern of nutrients may provide more information about probable underlying mechanisms.…”