title: The effect of dietary exposures on recurrence and mortality in early stage breast cancer.
abstract: We studied the effect of diet and body weight on recurrence and death in 472 women diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer in 1982-1984. From Cox proportional hazards regression models we found that the strongest effects were observed in premenopausal women. For example, after accounting for disease stage and age, reported baseline consumption (times/day) of butter, margarine, and lard (risk ratio (RR)=1.67; 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.17-2.39) and beer (drinks/day) (RR=1.58; 95% CI=1.15-2.17) increased the risk of recurrence. There also appeared to be an increased risk associated with consumption of red meat, liver, and bacon, corresponding to about a doubling of risk for each time per day that foods in this category were consumed (RR=1.93; 95 % CI=0.89-4.15). Relative body weight increased risk at the rate of 9% (RR=1.09; 95% CI=1.02-1.17) for each kg/m2 (equivalent to about 5.8 pounds for a woman 5'4" tall). For death, the results were similar, but relative weight was more strongly associated, increasing risk by 12% per kg/m2 (RR=1.12; 95% CI=1.03-1.22).
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester 01655, USA. james.hebert@ummed.edu
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Hebert
authors.forename: T G
authors.initials: TG
authors.lastname: Hurley
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ma
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001515:Beer; D015992:Body Mass Index; D001835:Body Weight; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D004032:Diet; D004041:Dietary Fats / Q000008:administration & dosage; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008404:Massachusetts / Q000453:epidemiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local; D009749:Nutrition Surveys; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D016019:Survival Analysis
chemical_list: D004041:Dietary Fats