Can Healthy Plant-Based Diets Decrease the Risk of Breast Cancer?
Posted: Thursday, May 6, 2021
Heather Eliassen, ScD, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, and colleagues studied the correlation between the quality of plant-based diets and the risk of total and subtypes of breast cancer. These investigators discovered that high-quality, healthy plant-based diets might reduce the risk of breast cancer. In contrast, low-quality diets may increase the risk of estrogen receptor (ER)-negative breast cancer. Their work was presented during the virtual edition of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2021 (Abstract 837).
The researchers followed 74,516 women from the Nurses’ Health study and 93,915 patients from the Nurses’ Health Study II; no participants had cancer at baseline. The researchers determined incident breast cancer cases and subtypes utilizing medical records, tissue microarray data, and pathology reports.
Plant-based diet index data were obtained by using repeated, semiquantitative food-frequency questionnaires. Positive scores were applied to healthy plant foods such as whole grains, nuts/legumes, oils, and fruits/vegetables, whereas reverse scores were used to animal foods and less healthy plant foods such as juice, refined grains, potatoes, and sweets.
A total of 11,281 cases of incident invasive breast cancer were documented at follow-up. Patients who displayed a higher plant-based diet index and healthful plant-based diet index demonstrated a moderately low risk of breast cancer (P = .02; P = < .001). There was significant heterogeneity observed by ER status (P = .01) and an even stronger inverse association between healthful plant-based diet index and incidence of ER-negative breast cancer (P = < .001). Of note, patients with a higher unhealthful plant-based diet index demonstrated an increased risk of developing ER-negative breast cancer (P = .03).
Disclosure: For full disclosures of the study authors, visit abstractsonline.com.
