Risk of breast cancer among greek women in relation to nutrient intake

Abstract

A case-control study of the role of diet in the cause of breast cancer was conducted in Athens, Greece. 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. Nutrient intakes for individuals were estimated by multiplying the nutrient content of a selected typical portion size for each specified food item by the frequency that the food was used per month and summing these estimates for all food items. Cases reported significantly less frequent consumption of vitamin A after controlling for total caloric intake, potential external confounding variables and other nutrients associated with breast cancer risk. The odds ratio estimated for consumption of vitamin A equal to the value of the 90th centile versus consumption equal to the value of the 10th centile was 0.46 with 90% confidence limits 0.26-0.82. There was no evidence that high intake of dietary fat increases the risk of breast cancer.

Vitamins A, C and E and the risk of breast cancer: results from a case-control study in Greece

“…Of 18 case-control studies, 14 (LaVecchia et al, 1987;Katsouyanni et al, 1988;Rohan et al, 1988;Iscovich et al, 1989;van 't Veer et al, 1990;Graham et al, 1991;Ingram et al, 1991;Lee et al, 1991;Zaridze et al, 1991;London et al, 1992;Levi et al, 1993;Holmberg et al, 1994;Freudenheim et al, 1996;Negri et al, 1996) observed a reduced risk of breast cancer among those in the highest category of carotenoid intake, whereas four (Marubini et al, 1988;Toniolo et al, 1989;Ewertz and Gill, 1990;Richardson et al, 1991) observed no reduction in risk. Of the inverse associations, six (Graham et al, 1991;Lee et al, 1991;Zaridze et al, 1991;Holmberg et al, 1994;Freudenheim et al, 1996;Negri et al, 1996) were statistically significant.…”

“…Of 13 case-control studies to evaluate vitamin C intake, eight (Iscovich et al, 1989;Graham et al, 1991;Zaridze et al, 1991;Levi et al, 1993;Landa et al, 1994;Yuan et al, 1995;Freudenheim et al, 1996;Negri et al, 1996) report odds ratios of less than 0.8, and five (Graham et al, 1982;Katsouyanni et al, 1988;Toniolo et al, 1989;Ingram et al, 1991;Holmberg et al, 1994) report odds ratios greater than or equal to 1.0. Howe et al (1990), in a combined analysis of the data from nine case-control studies, reported an odds ratio of 0.69 (P<0.0001) for the highest quintile of vitamin C intake.…”

“…Of 13 case-control studies, six (La Vecchia et al, 1987;Katsouyanni et al, 1988;Marubini et al, 1988;Zaridze et al, 1991;London et al, 1992;Negri et al, 1996) report inverse associations, and seven (Rohan et al, 1988;Toniolo et al, 1989;Graham et al, 1991;Ingram et al, 1991;Richardson et al, 1991;Levi et al, 1993;Yuan et al, 1995) report null or positive findings. Of the case-control studies reporting inverse associations, only one (Negri et al, 1996) approaches statistical significance at the highest category of intake.…”

“…Several previous studies have considered differences by menopausal status in the effect of micronutrients (La Vecchia et al, 1987;Katsouyanni et al, 1988;Marubini et al, 1988;Rohan et al, 1988;Howe et al, 1990;Richardson et al, 1991;Zaridze et al, 1991;Lee et al, 1992;Hunter et al, 1993;Rohan et al, 1993;Yuan et al, 1995), but with inconsistent results. Approximately half of all studies reporting results by menopausal status indicate no differences in pre-and postmenopausal women (La Vecchia et al, 1987;Katsouyanni et al, 1988;Marubini et al, 1988;Rohan et al, 1993;Yuan et al, 1995). Of studies that found even a modest difference by menopausal status, one (Zaridze et al, 1991) reported stronger protective effects among post-menopausal women, and three (Rohan et al, 1988;Lee et al, 1992;Hunter et al, 1993) reported stronger protective effects among premenopausal women for at least one nutrient.…”

Vitamins C and E, retinol, beta-carotene and dietary fibre in relation to breast cancer risk: a prospective cohort study

“…Some case-control studies showed a decrease in breast cancer risk with increased intake of the (pro)vitamins (Katsouyanni et al, 1988;Howe et al, 1990; Graham et al, 1991;Lee et al, 1991;Zaridze et al, 1991) and fibre (Iscovich et al, 1989;Howe et al, 1990;Van 't Veer et al, 1990; Graham et al, 1991;Baghurst and Rohan, 1994), whereas other case-control studies showed the opposite for (pro)vitamins (Toniolo et al, 1989;Ewertz and Gill, 1990;Richardson et al, 1991) and fibre (Katsouyanni et al, 1988;Ingram et al, 1991). Mostly negative non-significant associations between (pro)vitamin intake and the risk of breast cancer have been found in the few prospective cohort studies that have been conducted so far (Paganini-Hill et al, 1987;Graham et al, 1992;Hunter et al, 1993;Rohan et al, 1993).…”