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A dietary pattern derived to correlate with estrogens and risk of postmenopausal breast cancer

  • Epidemiology
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Abstract

Circulating estrogens are an established risk factor for breast cancer and some data suggest that diet may influence estrogen levels. Therefore, using a subsample (n = 550) of women from a large cohort, we applied reduced rank regression to identify a dietary pattern that was correlated with estradiol and estrone sulfate. We then adapted the pattern to be used with the full cohort (n = 67,802) and prospectively assessed its association with postmenopausal breast cancer. The estrogen food pattern, characterized by higher intakes of red meat, legumes, and pizza, but lower intakes of coffee and whole grains, was modestly but significantly correlated with estradiol (r = 0.14) and estrone sulfate (r = 0.20). During 22 years of follow-up, we ascertained 4,596 incident breast cancer, with 2,938 estrogen receptor-positive tumors and 689 estrogen receptor-negative tumors. However, after adjusting for potential confounders, we did not observe any association with overall estrogen receptor-positive or estrogen receptor-negative breast cancer. In conclusion, diet pattern appeared to only have modest association with estrogens, and was not associated with postmenopausal breast cancer risk. Although these results were null, it should be repeated in other populations as differences in food intake may yield a dietary pattern with stronger association with estrogens.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the participants and staff of the Nurses’ Health Study, for their valuable contributions, as well as the following state cancer registries for their help: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, IA, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MI, NE, NH, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX, VA, WA, WY. This work was funded by National Institutes of Health grants CA87969, HL60712, CA95589, and 1U54CA155626-01.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nutrition, Simmons College, 300 The Fenway, Boston, MA, 02115, USA

    Teresa T. Fung

  2. Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, 677 Huntington Ave, Boston, MA, 02115, USA

    Teresa T. Fung & Frank B. Hu

  3. Department of Molecular Epidemiology, German Institute of Nutrition, Potsdam, Arthur-Scheunert-Allee 114-116, 14558, Nuthetal, Germany

    Matthias B. Schulze

  4. Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, 181 Longwood Ave, Boston, MA, 02115, USA

    Frank B. Hu, Susan E. Hankinson & Michelle D. Holmes

  5. School of Public Health and Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, 715 North Pleasant Street, Amherst, MA, 01003, USA

    Susan E. Hankinson

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  1. Teresa T. Fung
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  2. Matthias B. Schulze
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  3. Frank B. Hu
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  4. Susan E. Hankinson
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  5. Michelle D. Holmes
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Correspondence to Teresa T. Fung.

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Fung, T.T., Schulze, M.B., Hu, F.B. et al. A dietary pattern derived to correlate with estrogens and risk of postmenopausal breast cancer. Breast Cancer Res Treat 132, 1157–1162 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-011-1942-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-011-1942-z

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