> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.foodconsumer.org/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Eating fruit, vegetables may cut risk of ER- breast cancer
- URL: https://www.foodconsumer.org/vegetables_er-breast_cancer_0129130711/
- Published: 2013-01-30T08:10:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-22T15:46:47.000Z
- Description: Pooling 20 cohort studies of 993,466 women, Jung's team found women in the top quintile of vegetable intake were 12 percent less likely to develop estrogen-receptor-negative breast cancer. Fruit and vegetables together gave a 6 percent reduction. Overall breast cancer risk did not change.
- Author: Food Consumer
- Tags: Food, Nutrition, #vivvo-import

By David Liu, PHD

Wednesday Jan 29, 2013 (foodconsumer.org) -- Eating fruit, vegetables, particularly the latter may help reduce risk of estrogen receptor negative (ER-) breast cancer, according to a new review study in the Journal of the National Institute of Cancer.

Seungyoun Jung, ScD from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA, USA and colleagues meta-analysed data from previous studies and found eating fruit and vegetables was inversely associated with risk of ER- breast cancer, which accounts for 15 to 20 percent of breast cancers.

Eating fruit and vegetables was not associated with reduced risk of overall breast cancer though, the study found.

The data used for the analysis came from 20 cohort studies of 993,466 women followed for 11 to 20 years among whom 19,859 were diagnosed with ER positive breast cancer and 4,821 with ER- breast cancers.

Vegetables seemed to be more beneficial than fruits. Women in the highest quintile of total vegetable consumption were found 12 percent less likely to develop ER- breast cancer, compared with those in the lowest quintile. When fruits were added into the equation, the the risk reduction was down to 6 percent, which was still statistically significant.

Breast cancer is diagnosed in more than 230,000 women each year in the United States and the disease and its complications kill about 37,000 patients, according to the United States National Institute of Cancer.

Breast cancer is in many cases preventable. Many lifestyle parameters can be modified to reduce the risk drastically. Two risk major risk factors, according to an authoritative organization, are hormone therapy and exposure to medical radiation used in x-ray, CT scans, mammography and radiotherapy.