Does diet affect breast cancer risk?

doi:10.1186/bcr909

Breast Cancer Res

Volume 6
Issue 4

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Does diet affect breast cancer risk?

Michelle D Holmes¹ and Walter C Willett¹^,2^,3

¹Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

²Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

³Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

author email corresponding author email

Breast Cancer Res 2004, 6:170-178doi:10.1186/bcr909


Published:	17 June 2004

Abstract

The role of specific dietary factors in breast cancer causation is not completely resolved. Results from prospective studies do not support the concept that fat intake in middle life has a major relation to breast cancer risk. However, weight gain in middle life contributes substantially to breast cancer risk. Alcohol is the best established dietary risk factor, probably by increasing endogenous estrogen levels. Hypotheses relating diet during youth to risk decades later will be difficult to test. Nevertheless, available evidence is strong that breast cancer risk can be reduced by avoiding weight gain during adult years, and by limiting alcohol consumption.