Mediterranean diet and breast density in the Minnesota Breast Cancer Family Study.
Mediterranean populations' lower breast cancer incidence has been attributed to a traditional Mediterranean diet, but few studies have quantified Mediterranean dietary pattern intake in relation to breast cancer. We examined the association of a Mediterranean diet scale (MDS) with mammographic breast density as a surrogate marker for breast cancer risk. Participants completed a dietary questionnaire and provided screening mammograms for breast density assessment using a computer-assisted method. Among 1,286 women, MDS was not clearly associated with percent density in multivariate linear regression analyses. Because of previous work suggesting dietary effects limited to smokers, we conducted stratified analyses and found MDS and percent density to be significantly, inversely associated among current smokers (beta = -1.68, P = 0.002) but not among nonsmokers (beta = -0.08, P = 0.72; P for interaction = 0.008). Our results confirm a previous suggestion that selected dietary patterns may be protective primarily in the presence of procarcinogenic compounds such as those found in tobacco smoke.
Tseng
Marilyn
M
Division of Population Science, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA 19111, USA. m_tseng@fccc.edu
Sellers
Thomas A
TA
Vierkant
Robert A
RA
Kushi
Lawrence H
LH
Vachon
Celine M
CM
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000517:prevention & control*; D038441:Diet, Mediterranean; D005260:Female; D005982:Glutathione Transferase / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D008327:Mammography; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis
C484555:GSTA1 protein, human; D005982:Glutathione Transferase