Cancer Dietary fat raises breast cancer risk
By Sue Mueller
Nov 16, 2008 - 1:45:50 PM
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Some studies have already found dietary fat increases
risk of breast cancer in the Western countries. A new study confirms that intake
of saturated fat may raise the risk.
The study led by Sieri S and colleagues from Nutritional
Epidemiology Unit in Fondazione, IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori in Milan,
Italy involved 319,826 European women enrolled in European Prospective
Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition.
The researchers followed participants for an average of
8.8 years during which 7119 were developed breast cancer.
They found that women in the quintile with highest intake
of saturated fat were 13 percent more likely to develop breast cancer than
those in the lowest quintile.
This is not the first epidemiologic study on the
association between dietary fat and breast cancer. It's just that not all
studies came to the agreement that dietary fat raises the risk.
There were no significant associations found between
breast cancer risk and total, monounsaturated, or polyunsaturated fat, the
study found.
But surprisingly, there were an association for
monounsaturated fat and an inverse correlation for polyunsaturated fat.
Monounsaturated fat most abundant in olive
oil and some types of polyunsaturated fat can be very beneficial.
Of women, the positive association with saturated fat was
only found in postmenopausal women and high intake was linked to a 21 percent
increase in breast cancer risk, the researchers found.
The study was published in the Nov 2008 issue of American
Journal of Clinical Nutrition.