Abstract
Lack of consistency in the relationship between dairy products consumption and breast cancer (BC) risk motivated us to evaluate this association in a case-control study of BC among Polish women. The study includes 1699 women 26–79 years of age, 823 BC cases identified in Cancer Registries and 876 randomly selected controls from the national population registry. Using a validated, semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire (FFQ), the consumption of dairy products was collected for a time period of 10–15 years prior to BC diagnosis. We used logistic regression, adjusting for potential confounders, to assess the relationship between total dairy consumption as well as individual dairy groups of milk, cottage cheese and hard cheese and BC risk for premenopausal and postmenopausal women. For total consumption, a significant decrease in BC risk was observed with increased consumption of one serving/week, OR trend = 0.98, 2% decrease in risk, for premenopausal women only. For milk, a significant decrease in BC risk was observed for an increase in consumption of one glass/week, OR trend = 0.95, 5% decrease, in both strata of menopause. In contrast, for hard cheese, a significant increase in the risk of 10% was observed only in premenopausal women, OR trend = 1.10. Cottage cheese consumption significantly reduced BC risk by 20%, OR trend = 0.80, for an increase in one serving/week for postmenopausal women only. Our results show that individual dairy products have a statistically significant but bi-directional relationship with BC risk, which differs for premenopausal and postmenopausal women.
Highlights
The relationship between the consumption of selected food groups, individual foods or their nutrients and risk of various cancers has been extensively studied globally, with inconsistent results
In the stratified analysis by menopausal status, the inverse association of moderate total dairy product consumption was significant for postmenopausal breast cancer, and the inverse association with intermediate low-fat dairy products was significant for premenopausal breast cancer
The aim of this study is to evaluate the relationship between the usual milk and dairy products consumption from 10 to 15 years before breast cancer diagnosis, based on data collected in an epidemiological case-control study of breast cancer in Polish women in three different regions of Poland
Summary
The relationship between the consumption of selected food groups, individual foods or their nutrients and risk of various cancers has been extensively studied globally, with inconsistent results. Further linear trend and subgroup analysis showed that effect was dependent on dose and dairy type Another meta-analysis, focusing on evaluating low-fat/skim milk, whole milk and yogurt [7], based on studies from the US, Europe and Japan, observed summary OR’s suggesting a decrease in risk for high vs low consumption of low-fat/skim milk of 14%, whole milk of 5% and yogurt of 10%. A study by Fraser [9], based on the Adventist Health Study-2, observed an increase in breast cancer risk with increased milk consumption, while results from the SUN Cohort in Spain [10] observed a significant inverse association for women with moderate total dairy and moderate low-fat dairy product consumption relative to their respective low categories. In the stratified analysis by menopausal status, the inverse association of moderate total dairy product consumption was significant for postmenopausal breast cancer, and the inverse association with intermediate low-fat dairy products was significant for premenopausal breast cancer
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