Dietary patterns and breast cancer risk in Asian American women.
BACKGROUND
The role of diet as a cause of breast cancer in Asian Americans has not been adequately studied.


OBJECTIVE
We investigated the association between dietary patterns and breast cancer risk in Asian Americans.


METHODS
This population-based case-control study in Los Angeles County compared dietary patterns between 1248 Asian American women with incident breast cancer and 1148 age-, ethnicity-, and neighborhood-matched controls. The relation between dietary patterns and serum concentrations of estrogens, androgens, and sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) was investigated in 2172 postmenopausal control women.


RESULTS
We used a scoring method proposed by Trichopoulou et al (1) and found that adherence to a Mediterranean diet was inversely associated with risk; the odds ratio (OR) was 0.65 (95% CI: 0.44, 0.95) in women with the highest scores (> or = 8; most adherent) compared with those with the lowest scores (0-3; P for trend = 0.009), after adjustment for key covariates. We also used factor analysis and identified 3 dietary patterns (Western-meat/starch, ethnic-meat/starch, and vegetables/soy). In a combined index of the 3 patterns, women who were high consumers of Western and ethnic meat/starch and low consumers of the vegetables/soy diets showed the highest risk (OR: 2.19; 95% CI: 1.40, 3.42; P for trend = 0.0005). SHBG concentrations were 23% lower in women with a high intake of the meat/starch pattern and a low intake of the vegetables/soy pattern than in those with a low intake of the meat/starch pattern and a high intake of the vegetables/soy pattern (P for trend = 0.069).


CONCLUSIONS
Our results suggest that a diet characterized by a low intake of meat/starches and a high intake of legumes is associated with a reduced risk of breast cancer in Asian Americans.
Wu
Anna H
AH
Department of Preventive Medicine, University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA. annawu@usc.edu
Yu
Mimi C
MC
Tseng
Chiu-Chen
CC
Stanczyk
Frank Z
FZ
Pike
Malcolm C
MC
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000728:Androgens / Q000097:blood; D001208:Asia / Q000208:ethnology; D001213:Asian; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000208:ethnology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D004032:Diet; D004967:Estrogens / Q000097:blood; D007887:Fabaceae; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000208:ethnology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015141:Los Angeles / Q000453:epidemiology; D008460:Meat; D008875:Middle Aged; D016017:Odds Ratio; D012307:Risk Factors; D012738:Sex Hormone-Binding Globulin / Q000378:metabolism; D013025:Glycine max; D013213:Starch
D000728:Androgens; D004967:Estrogens; D012738:Sex Hormone-Binding Globulin; D013213:Starch