title: A prospective cohort study on dietary fat and the risk of postmenopausal breast cancer.
abstract: In 1986 a prospective cohort study on diet and cancer was started in the Netherlands among 62,573 women ages 55-69 years. Baseline information on diet and other risk factors was collected with a questionnaire. Cancer incidence was measured by record linkage with cancer registries and a pathology register. A case-cohort approach was used, in which the accumulated person time in the cohort was estimated by follow-up of a randomly selected subcohort (n = 1812). After 3.3 years of follow-up, 471 incident breast cancer cases were available for analysis. Questionnaire data for these cases and the 1716 female subcohort members without a history of cancer other than skin cancer were analyzed. In a multivariate analysis, controlling for traditional risk factors, the relative rates for breast cancer in increasing quintiles of energy-adjusted total fat intake were 1.00, 1.00, 1.34, 1.22, 1.08 (P-trend, 0.32). For saturated fat there was some evidence for a weak positive association when quintiles were used (relative rates in quintiles 1-5, 1.00, 1.22, 1.22, 1.38, 1.39; P-trend, 0.049). The 95% confidence interval (CI) for the top quintile was 0.94-2.06, however; and when saturated fat was used as a continuous variable, the effect was no longer significant (P = 0.20). Relative rate estimates for the highest versus lowest quintiles of monounsaturated fat, polyunsaturated fat, and cholesterol intake were 0.75 (95% CI, 0.50-1.12), 0.95 (95% CI, 0.64-1.40) and 1.09 (95% CI, 0.74-1.61), respectively, with no evidence for significant trends. This prospective study does not support a major role of dietary fat in the etiology of postmenopausal breast cancer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, University of Limburg, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: P A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: van den Brandt
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: van't Veer
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Goldbohm
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Dorant
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Volovics
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Hermus
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sturmans
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004041:Dietary Fats / Q000009:adverse effects*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008593:Menopause / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009426:Netherlands / Q000453:epidemiology; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors
chemical_list: D004041:Dietary Fats