Saturday, August 4, 2007 (Foodconsumer.org) - Eating a western diet may increase breast cancer risk in postmenopausal women, a new study published in the July 16 2007 issue of Cancer epidemiology, biomarkers & prevention.

The study led by Cui X at Harvard School of Public Health and colleagues involved 1,446 breast cancer cases and 1,556 age-matched controls from Shanghai, China.

The researchers found those who were in the quartile with the highest intake of meat and sweets were 30 percent more likely to have breast cancer than those who were in the quartile with the lowest intake of meat and sweets.  

The association was found in postmenopausal women only.   For postmenopausal women, the highest intake of meats and sweets were associated with a 90 percent higher risk of estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer.

The subjects were grouped based on their dietary habits into two groups, vegetable-soy eaters whose diet included tofu, cauliflower, beans, bean sprouts, and green leafy vegetables and meat-sweet eaters whose diet include shrimp, chicken, beef, pork, candy, and desserts.

The vegetable soy diet was not associated with the breast cancer risk, according to the researchers.

They concluded that "our findings indicate that a western diet increases breast cancer risk in postmenopausal Chinese women.

An estimated 40,460 women are expected to die from the disease in 2007 and 178,480 new cases of invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed in the United States, according to American Cancer Society.

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