Background:

There are no adequate studies to prove that diet plays a role in the cause of breast cancer.

Objective:

Researchers have investigated the relationship between dietary patterns and the risk of breast cancer in Asian Americans.

Design:

A population-based case-control study was conducted in Los Angeles County, which compared the dietary patterns between 1248 Asian American women with the occurrence of breast cancer and 1148 age-, ethnicity-, and neighborhood-matched controls. Also, the relation between serum concentrations of estrogens, androgens, and sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) and dietary patterns was studied in 2172 postmenopausal control women.

Results:

A scoring method proposed by Trichopoulou et al (1) was used. The study revealed that following a Mediterranean diet was inversely linked with the risk, and the odds ratio (OR) was 0.65 (95% CI:0.44, 0.95) in women with the highest scores (> or = 8; most adhering ones) when compared with the lowest scores (0-3; P for trend = 0.009), after adjusting for covariates. Factor analysis was used to identify three dietary patterns (Western meat/starch, ethnic meat/starch and vegetables/soy). In a combined index of all three patterns, it was observed that women with a high consumption of Western and ethnic meat/starch patterns and a low consumption of vegetables/soy diets displayed a higher risk (OR:2.19; 95% CI:1.40, 3.42; P for trend = 0.0005). SHBG concentrations were found to be 23% lower in women with a high consumption of meat/starch pattern and a low consumption of vegetable/soy pattern than in those with a low consumption of meat/starch pattern and a high consumption of vegetables/soy pattern (P for trend = 0.069).

Conclusion:

The results of the study suggested that a diet comprising of low amounts of meat/starches and high amounts of legumes is linked with a lower risk of breast cancer in Asian Americans.