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Type does matter. Use VIRGIN olive oil as your preferred fat to reduce your risk of breast cancer: case-control EpiGEICAM study

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 76, pages 1343–1346 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

The Epi-GEICAM study comprises 1017 invasive BC cases matched with controls of similar age (49 ± 9 years) and residence. Diet and OO consumption were collected through a validated food frequency questionnaire. 75% of women referred OO, common (refined) or virgin, as the main fat source. Using conditional logistic regression models, we compared different scenarios of type and frequency of OO consumption, using as reference those women not always using OO for the three culinary practices (seasoning, cooking, and frying) and adding <2 tablespoons (tbsps.) per day during the meal to bread, salad, or dishes. A substantial inverse association was observed in those women always using VOO for the three culinary practices and consuming ≥2 tbsps. of OO per day during meals (adjusted OR, 0.72; 95% CI: 0.51, 1.03; P = 0.07). Potential benefits from OO consumption, at least as regards the protection provided for BC, could be mostly conferred with VOO, and when its consumption is high.

Breast cancer (BC) remains the most frequently diagnosed non-cutaneous malignant tumor in women in the majority of the countries worldwide abruptly disrupting the lives of millions of women [1]. Historically, a lower incidence of BC has been observed in Mediterranean countries [2] where, before the incursion of the fast-food culture, olive oil (OO) was the main culinary and unrestricted dressing fat both in the kitchen and at the table [2].

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Acknowledgements

We thank to all study participants.

Funding

This study was funded by the Fundación Científica Asociación Española Contra el Cancer (AECC) (Scientific Foundation of the Spanish Association against Cancer 2006 & 2016), Sociedad Española de Oncología Médica (SEOM) (Spanish Society of Medical Oncology), Community of Madrid (Scholarship “Contrato de atracción de talento” to Carolina Donat-Vargas), Fundación Cerveza y Salud 2005 (Beer and Health Foundation 2005) and Federación de Asociaciones de Mujeres con Cáncer de Mama (FECMA) (Spanish Federation of Associations of Women with Breast Cancer).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. IMDEA-Food Institute. CEI UAM+CSIC, Madrid, Spain

    Carolina Donat-Vargas

  2. Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health. School of Medicine, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid-IdiPaz, CIBERESP (CIBER of Epidemiology and Public Health), Madrid, Spain

    Carolina Donat-Vargas

  3. Unit of Cardiovascular and Nutritional Epidemiology, Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

    Carolina Donat-Vargas

  4. Medical Oncology Unit, Instituto Valenciano de Oncología, Valencia, Spain

    Ángel Guerrero-Zotano

  5. National Center for Epidemiology, Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCII), Madrid, Spain

    Virginia Lope, Nerea Fernández de Larrea-Baz, Beatriz Pérez-Gómez & Marina Pollán

  6. Consortium for Biomedical Research in Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBERESP), Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCII), Madrid, Spain

    Virginia Lope, Nerea Fernández de Larrea-Baz, Beatriz Pérez-Gómez & Marina Pollán

  7. Medical Oncology Unit, Hospital Clínico, Valencia, Spain

    Begoña Bermejo

  8. Medical Oncology Unit, Hospital Virgen del Rocío, Sevilla, Spain

    Ana Casas

  9. Medical Oncology Unit, Hospital Puerta del Mar, Cádiz, Spain

    José Manuel Baena-Cañada

  10. Instituto de Investigación en Biomedicina de Cádiz (INiBICA), Cádiz, Spain

    José Manuel Baena-Cañada

  11. Medical Oncology Unit, Complejo Hospitalario Universitario A Coruña, Coruña, Spain

    Silvia Antolín

  12. Medical Oncology Unit, Hospital Universitario de Jaén, Jaén, España

    Pedro Sánchez-Rovira

  13. Medical Oncology Unit, Hospital Universitario Miguel Servet, Zaragoza, España

    Antonio Antón

  14. Medical Oncology Unit, Hospital Clínico Universitario San Carlos, Madrid, Spain

    José Ángel Garcia-Saénz

  15. Medical Oncology Unit, Centro Oncológico de Galicia, A Coruña, Spain

    Manuel Ramos

  16. Medical Oncology Unit, Hospital Clinic i Provincial, Barcelona, Spain

    Montserrat Muñoz

  17. Translational Genomics and Targeted Therapeutics, Institut d’Investigacions Biomèdiques Pi i Sunyer-IDIBAPS, Barcelona, Spain

    Montserrat Muñoz

  18. Medical Oncology Unit, Hospital Marqués de Valdecilla, Santander, Spain

    Ana de Juan

  19. Medical Oncology Unit/Departamento Especialidades Médicas, Hospital Universitario Fundación Alcorcón/Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain

    Carlos Jara Sánchez

  20. Medical Oncology Unit, Hospital Virgen de la Salud, Toledo, Spain

    José Ignacio Chacón

  21. Medical Oncology Unit, Instituto Catalán de Oncología, Hospitalet, Barcelona, Spain

    Miguel Gil-Gil

  22. Medical Oncology Unit, Hospital Clínico Lozano Blesa, Zaragoza, Spain

    Raquel Andrés Conejero

  23. Medical Oncology Unit, Hospital Arnau de Vilanova, Valencia, Spain

    Antonio Llombart

  24. GEICAM Spanish Breast Cancer Group, Madrid, Spain

    Susana Bezares

  25. Medical Oncology Unit, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Gregorio Marañón/Universidad Complutense, Madrid, Spain

    Miguel Martín

  26. Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Oncología, CIBERONC-ISCIII, Madrid, Spain

    Miguel Martín

Authors
  1. Carolina Donat-Vargas
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  2. Ángel Guerrero-Zotano
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  3. Virginia Lope
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  4. Begoña Bermejo
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  5. Ana Casas
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  8. Pedro Sánchez-Rovira
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  10. José Ángel Garcia-Saénz
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  11. Manuel Ramos
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  13. Ana de Juan
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  14. Carlos Jara Sánchez
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  15. José Ignacio Chacón
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  16. Miguel Gil-Gil
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  17. Raquel Andrés Conejero
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  18. Antonio Llombart
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  19. Susana Bezares
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  20. Nerea Fernández de Larrea-Baz
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  21. Beatriz Pérez-Gómez
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  22. Miguel Martín
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  23. Marina Pollán
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Contributions

CDV: formal analysis, writing - original draft, writing - review & editing. ÁGZ, BB, AC, JMBC, SA, PSR, AA, JÁGS, MR, MM, AJC, CJS, JIC, MGG, RAC, AL, SB: investigation, writing - review & editing. VL, NFLB, BPG: writing - review & editing. MM: conceptualization, investigation, writing - review & editing, supervision, project administration. MP: conceptualization, investigation, writing - review & editing, supervision, project administration, funding acquisition.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marina Pollán.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

ÁGZ has received institutional grant from Pfizer; has participated in advisory board activities with Novartis, Palex, Pfizer and Astra Zeneca; has received travel grand from Roche, Pfizer and Novartis. MR has received honoraria from Novartis, Roche and Pfizer. MM has received honoraria from Roche/Genentech, Lilly, Pfizer, Novartis and Pierre-Fabre; has participated in consulting or advisory board activities with Roche/Genentech, Novartis, Pfizer, Lilly, Astra Zeneca and Taiho Pharmaceutical; has received speakers’ bureau from Lilly/ImClone, Roche/Genentech and Pierre Fabre; has contracted research fees from Roche, Novartis, and PUMA. All remaining authors have declared no conflicts of interest. Industry was not involved in the study hypothesis/design, execution, analysis, or interpretation.

Ethical approval and informed consent

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committees, and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The present study was approved by the Clinical Research Ethics Committees of the following institutions: Fundación Instituto Valenciano de Oncología; Hospital Universitario Virgen del Rocío de Sevilla; Hospital Universitario Puerta del Mar; Hospital Clínico San Carlos de Madrid; Hospital Clinic de Barcelona; Hospital Clínico Universitario de Valencia; Fundación Hospital Alcorcón; Complejo Hospitalario de Toledo; Hospital Mutua de Terrassa; Hospital Universitari de Bellvitge; Hospital General Universitario de Alicante; Hospital Virgen de los Lirios de Alcoy; Hospital Universitari de Girona Dr. Josep Trueta; Hospital Mutua de Terrassa; Hospital Universitari Arnau de Vilanova de Lleida; Fundacio d. Osona per a la Recerca i Educacio Sanitaries – FORES, and by the Regional Institutional Review Boards of Burgos and Soria, Aragon-CEICA, Galicia, Cantabria and Jaen. All participants signed an informed consent and patient information was anonymized and de-identified prior to analysis.

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Donat-Vargas, C., Guerrero-Zotano, Á., Lope, V. et al. Type does matter. Use VIRGIN olive oil as your preferred fat to reduce your risk of breast cancer: case-control EpiGEICAM study. Eur J Clin Nutr 76, 1343–1346 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-022-01101-w

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