Abstract 1271: Alcohol intake and breast cancer in the European Prospective investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study

Abstract

Abstract Context: Alcohol intake has been positively associated to breast cancer among both pre and postmenopausal women; however results are inconclusive with regards to tumor hormonal receptor status, and potential modifying factors such as age at start drinking, and dietary fiber. Objective: To investigate the relation between alcohol intake and the risk of breast cancer using data from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC). Design, Setting, and Participants: Prospective observational study of 334,850 women mostly aged 35-70 years at baseline enrolled in the ten countries of the EPIC study and followed up for 11.0 years on average. Information on alcohol intake at baseline and average lifetime alcohol intake were calculated from country-specific dietary and lifestyle questionnaires. Main Outcome Measures: Hazard ratios (HR) of developing invasive breast cancer according to hormonal receptor status. Results: During 3,670,439 person-years, 11,576 incident breast cancer cases were diagnosed. Increasing alcohol intake was significantly related to breast cancer risk, for each 10g/day increase in alcohol intake the HR increased by 4.2% (95% CI, 2.7% -5.8%). Taking 0 to 5g/day as reference, alcohol intake of >5 to 15 g/day was related to a 5.9% increase of breast cancer risk (95% CI, 1% -11%). A significant increasing trend was observed between alcohol intake for ER+/PR+, ER-/PR-, HER2- and ER-/PR-/HER2-tumors. The risk of breast cancer appeared stronger among women who started drinking prior to first full-time pregnancy and among drinkers (>15g/day) with low intake of fiber. Conclusions: Our results confirm the association between alcohol intake and breast cancer risk, and suggest that some other risk factors such as fiber intake, may modulate this association. Women should be advised to control their alcohol intake, and increase their intake of fiber. Citation Format: Isabelle Romieu, Chiara Scoccianti, Veronique Chajes, Jordi De Batlle, Sabina Rinaldi. Alcohol intake and breast cancer in the European Prospective investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 1271. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-1271