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Effect of dietary fiber intake on breast cancer risk according to estrogen and progesterone receptor status

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 65, pages 929–936 (2011)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background/Objectives:

There is few data on the association between dietary fiber intake and estrogen receptor (ER)/progesterone receptor (PR)-defined breast cancer risk. The present study aimed to investigate the associations between total dietary fiber and dietary fiber fractions intake and breast cancer risk by ER and PR status in a hospital-based case–control study among Chinese women.

Subjects/Methods:

Four hundred and thirty-eight cases with primary breast cancer were consecutively recruited from June 2007 to August 2008 and frequency matched to 438 controls by age (5-year interval) and residence (rural/urban). A validated food frequency questionnaire was used to assess the dietary intake through a face-to-face interview. Unconditional logistic regression models were used to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence interval (CI) after adjusting for various potential confounders.

Results:

A statistically significant inverse association was found between total dietary fiber and fiber fractions intake and breast cancer risk. The adjusted ORs (95% CIs) for the highest versus the lowest quartile of intake were 0.31 (0.20–0.47) for total dietary fiber, 0.73 (0.48–1.11) for soy fiber, 0.48 (0.22–0.97) for vegetable fiber and 0.54 (0.31–0.92) for fruit fiber. No association was observed for cereal fiber intake and risk. An inverse association between dietary fiber intake and breast cancer risk was observed in ER+, ER−, PR+, ER+PR+ and ER−PR+ tumors.

Conclusions:

Our results suggest that consumption of total dietary fiber and fiber from vegetable and fruit was inversely associated with breast cancer risk. These inverse associations were more prominent in some subtypes of ER and PR breast cancers.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Center of Research and Promotion of Women's Health of the School of Public Health and Primary Care of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. We very gratefully acknowledge the assistance of our student helpers and participation of the study subjects, without them the study would not be possible. We also thank the following doctors for their kind permission to interview patients in their hospitals: Dr Kong-jia Luo, Hong Yang in Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Shu-wen Wu, Rui-yu Zheng, Feng-jiao Yan, Li-jing Hu in the First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre of Research and Promotion of Women's Health, School of Public Health and Primary Care, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, People's Republic of China

    C-X Zhang & S C Ho

  2. Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China

    C-X Zhang & Y-M Chen

  3. Nursing Department, the First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China

    S-Z Cheng & F-Y Lin

  4. Department of Thoracic Surgery, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China

    J-H Fu

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Correspondence to S C Ho.

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Zhang, CX., Ho, S., Cheng, SZ. et al. Effect of dietary fiber intake on breast cancer risk according to estrogen and progesterone receptor status. Eur J Clin Nutr 65, 929–936 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejcn.2011.57

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Keywords

  • fiber
  • breast cancer
  • estrogen receptor
  • progesterone receptor

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