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Folate intake and the risk of breast cancer: an up-to-date meta-analysis of prospective studies

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 73, pages 1657–1660 (2019)Cite this article

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Abstract

Epidemiological studies focusing on the association between folate and breast cancer risk reported inconsistent findings. We conducted a systematic search of the literature using PubMed and EMBASE databases. A total of 23 prospective studies involving 41,516 cases and 1,171,048 individuals were included for meta-analysis. Folate intake may decrease the risk of oestrogen receptor (ER) negative (−) and ER-/progesterone receptor (PR)- breast cancer, with pooled risk ratios (RRs) of 0.88 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.78–1.00] and 0.82 (95% CI: 0.68–0.97), respectively. An increment of folate intake of 100 μg per day was associated with a deceased risk of ER- (RR = 0.94, 95% CI: 0.88–0.99) and ER-/PR- (RR = 0.90, 95% CI: 0.85–0.97) breast cancer. Moreover, high folate intake may have preventive effects against breast cancer in premenopausal women (RR = 0.94, 95% CI: 0.88–1.00) and individuals with moderate or high levels of alcohol consumption (RR = 0.82, 95% CI: 0.72–0.94).

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the research grant from Chongqing Fundamental and Advanced Research Project (cstc2017jcyjAX0088) and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (XDJK2018C071).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Food Science, Southwest University, No.2 Tiansheng Road, BeiBei District, Chongqing, 400715, China

    Jie Zeng, Fayin Ye, Lin Lei, Yun Zhou, Jia Chen, Guohua Zhao & Hui Chang

  2. People’s Hospital of Sishui County, No. 083 health Road, Sishui County, Jining, Shandong Province, 273200, China

    Kun Wang & Hui Chang

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  1. Jie Zeng
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Correspondence to Guohua Zhao or Hui Chang.

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Zeng, J., Wang, K., Ye, F. et al. Folate intake and the risk of breast cancer: an up-to-date meta-analysis of prospective studies. Eur J Clin Nutr 73, 1657–1660 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-019-0394-0

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