Dietary intakes of fat and fatty acids and risk of breast cancer: a prospective study in Japan.
To examine the possible association of dietary fat and fatty acids with breast cancer risk in a population with a low total fat intake and a high consumption of fish, we analyzed data from the Japan Collaborative Cohort (JACC) Study. From 1988 to 1990, 26 291 women aged 40-79 years completed a questionnaire on dietary and other factors. Intakes of fat or fatty acids were estimated by using a food frequency questionnaire. Rate ratios (RR) were computed by fitting proportional hazards models. During the mean follow-up of 7.6 years, 129 breast cancer cases were documented. We found no clear association of total fat intake with breast cancer risk; the multivariate-adjusted RR across quartiles were 1.00, 1.29, 0.95, and 0.80 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.46-1.38). A significant decrease in the risk was detected for the highest quartile of intake compared with the lowest for fish fat and long-chain n-3 fatty acids; the RR were 0.56 (95% CI 0.33-0.94) and 0.50 (0.30-0.85), respectively. A decreasing trend in risk was also suggested with an increasing intake of saturated fatty acids (trend P = 0.066). Among postmenopausal women at baseline, the highest quartile of vegetable fat intake was associated with a 2.08-fold increase in risk (95% CI 1.05-4.13). This prospective study did not support any increase in the risk of breast cancer associated with total or saturated fat intake, but it suggested the protective effects of the long-chain n-3 fatty acids that are abundant in fish.
Wakai
Kenji
K
Division of Epidemiology and Prevention, Aichi Cancer Center Research Institute, 1-1 Kanokoden, Nagoya 464-8681, Japan. wakai@aichi-cc.jp
Tamakoshi
Koji
K
Date
Chigusa
C
Fukui
Mitsuru
M
Suzuki
Sadao
S
Lin
Yingsong
Y
Niwa
Yoshimitsu
Y
Nishio
Kazuko
K
Yatsuya
Hiroshi
H
Kondo
Takaaki
T
Tokudome
Shinkan
S
Yamamoto
Akio
A
Toyoshima
Hideaki
H
Tamakoshi
Akiko
A
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control; D004041:Dietary Fats; D005227:Fatty Acids / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D017698:Postmenopause; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D017747:Seafood
D004041:Dietary Fats; D005227:Fatty Acids