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Dietary fiber intake and risk of breast cancer defined by estrogen and progesterone receptor status: the Japan Public Health Center-based Prospective Study

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Abstract

Purpose

Epidemiological studies have suggested a protective effect of dietary fiber intake on breast cancer risk while the results have been inconsistent. Our study aimed to investigate the association between dietary fiber intake and breast cancer risk and to explore whether this association is modified by reproductive factors and hormone receptor status of the tumor.

Methods

A total of 44,444 women aged 45 to 74 years from the Japan Public Health Center-based Prospective Study were included in analyses. Dietary intake assessment was performed using a validated 138-item food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for breast cancer incidence were calculated by multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression models.

Results

During 624,423 person-years of follow-up period, 681 breast cancer cases were identified. After adjusting for major confounders for breast cancer risk, inverse trends were observed but statistically non-significant. Extremely high intake of fiber was associated with decreased risk of breast cancer but this should be interpreted with caution due to limited statistical power. In stratified analyses by menopausal and hormone receptor status, null associations were observed except for ER-PR- status.

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that extreme high fiber intake may be associated with decreased risk of breast cancer but the level of dietary fiber intake among Japanese population might not be sufficient to examine the association between dietary fiber intake and breast cancer risk.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the Iwate, Ibaraki, Niigata, Kochi, Nagasaki, and Okinawa Cancer Registries for providing their incidence data.

Funding

This work was funded by the National Cancer Center Research and Development Fund [23-A-31(toku), 26-A-2] and Kiban A: Burden of Disease Fund [25253051].

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Global Health Policy, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 1130033, Japan

    Saki Narita, Sarah K. Abe & Kenji Shibuya

  2. AXA Department of Health and Human Security, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 1130033, Japan

    Manami Inoue & Eiko Saito

  3. Epidemiology and Prevention Group, Center for Public Health Sciences, National Cancer Center, 5-1-1 Tsukiji, Chuo-ku, Tokyo, 104-0045, Japan

    Manami Inoue, Eiko Saito, Norie Sawada, Motoki Iwasaki, Taiki Yamaji, Taichi Shimazu, Shizuka Sasazuki & Shoichiro Tsugane

  4. Department of Nutrition Management, Sagami Women’s University, 2-1-1 Bunkyo Minami Ward, Sagamihara, Kanagawa, 252-0307, Japan

    Junko Ishihara

Authors
  1. Saki Narita
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  2. Manami Inoue
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for the JPHC Study Group

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Manami Inoue or Shoichiro Tsugane.

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Conflict of interest

M. Inoue is the beneficiary of a financial contribution from the AXA Research Fund as a chair holder of the AXA Department of Health and Human Security, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo. The AXA Research Fund had no role in the design, data collection, analysis, interpretation or manuscript drafting, or in the decision to submit the manuscript for publication. All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

JPHC Study Group members are listed at the following site: http://epi.ncc.go.jp/en/jphc/781/3838.html.

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Narita, S., Inoue, M., Saito, E. et al. Dietary fiber intake and risk of breast cancer defined by estrogen and progesterone receptor status: the Japan Public Health Center-based Prospective Study. Cancer Causes Control 28, 569–578 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-017-0881-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-017-0881-3

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