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Prenatal factors and infant feeding in relation to risk of benign breast disease in young women

  • Epidemiology
  • Published:
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Abstract

Benign breast disease (BBD) is a well-established risk factor for breast cancer, but little work has considered a girl’s early life and her risk for BBD in adulthood. We investigated factors, from pre-conception through infant feeding practices, in relation to subsequent BBD risk in young women. The Growing Up Today Study (GUTS) includes 9032 females, born 1980–1987, who completed questionnaires annually from 1996 through 2001, then 2003, 2005, 2007, 2010, and 2013. In 1996, their mothers provided each participant’s birth weight and length, gestational age, biological father’s height, and infant feeding factors (e.g., breast-fed, type of formula). In 1999, their mothers reported maternal pre-pregnancy weight and weight gain during index pregnancy. Beginning in 2005, daughters (18 years+) reported whether they had ever been diagnosed with biopsy-confirmed BBD (n = 142 cases, through 2013). Logistic regression estimated associations between early life factors and biopsy-confirmed BBD. Girls whose mother’s BMI prior to pregnancy was 20–25 kg/m2 were at lower risk of BBD as young women (OR = 0.66, p = 0.04, vs. maternal pre-pregnancy BMI < 20). Girls whose mothers gained 20 + pounds (vs. <20 pounds) during pregnancy were at lower risk (among full-term singleton births: OR = 0.48, p = 0.007, if mother gained 20–35 pounds). However, neither birth weight nor BMI at birth were associated with subsequent BBD risk. We found no evidence that infant feeding practices were linked to BBD. A healthy maternal BMI before pregnancy and sufficient weight gain during pregnancy may produce daughters at lower risk for BBD as young women. Further examination of these findings is needed.

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Acknowledgments

Supported by a Grant from The Breast Cancer Research Foundation (NYC, NY) and by DK046834 from the National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, MD). Dr. Frazier was supported by an award from the American Institute for Cancer Research. Dr. Colditz was supported, in part, by an American Cancer Society Clinical Research Professorship. The authors appreciate the ongoing, since 1996, dedication of our female GUTS participants and their mothers in NHSII.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Channing Division of Network Medicine, Department of Medicine, Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, 181 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA, 02115, USA

    Catherine S. Berkey, Bernard Rosner & Rulla M. Tamimi

  2. Departments of Nutrition and Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, USA

    Walter C. Willett

  3. Department of Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, USA

    A. Lindsay Frazier

  4. Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, USA

    Graham A. Colditz

Authors
  1. Catherine S. Berkey
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  2. Bernard Rosner
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  3. Walter C. Willett
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  4. Rulla M. Tamimi
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  5. A. Lindsay Frazier
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  6. Graham A. Colditz
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Correspondence to Catherine S. Berkey.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures were in accordance with the ethical standards of Harvard University and Brigham & Women’s Hospital, and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in this study.

Additional information

A. Lindsay Frazier and Graham A. Colditz are co-senior authors.

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Berkey, C.S., Rosner, B., Willett, W.C. et al. Prenatal factors and infant feeding in relation to risk of benign breast disease in young women. Breast Cancer Res Treat 154, 573–582 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-015-3637-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-015-3637-3

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