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BMC Cancer
Published in: BMC Cancer 1/2015

Open Access 01-12-2015 | Research article

Alcohol consumption, body mass index and breast cancer risk by hormone receptor status: Women’ Lifestyle and Health Study

Authors: Aesun Shin, Sven Sandin, Marie Lof, Karen L. Margolis, Kyeezu Kim, Elisabeth Couto, Hans Olov Adami, Elisabete Weiderpass

Published in: BMC Cancer | Issue 1/2015

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Abstract

Background

We aimed to estimate the effect of alcohol consumption on breast cancer risk and to test whether overweight and obesity modifies this association.

Methods

We included in the analysis 45,233 women enrolled in the Swedish Women’s Lifestyle and Health study between 1991 and 1992. Participants were followed for occurrence of breast cancer and death until December 2009. Poisson regression models were used, and analyses were done for overall breast cancer and for estrogen receptor positive or negative (ER+, ER-) and progesterone receptor positive and negative (PR+, PR-) tumors separately.

Results

A total of 1,385 breast cancer cases were ascertained during the follow-up period. Overall, we found no statistically significant association between alcohol intake and breast cancer risk after adjustment for confounding, with an estimated relative risk (RR) of 1.01 (95 % CI: 0.98–1.04) for an increment in alcohol consumption of 5 g/day. A statistically significant elevated breast cancer risk associated with higher alcohol consumption was found only among women with BMI ≤25 (RR 1.03, 95 % CI 1.0–1.05 per 5 g/day increase).

Conclusion

An increase in breast cancer risk with higher alcohol consumption was found for breast cancers in women with a BMI ≤25 kg/m2.
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Metadata
Title
Alcohol consumption, body mass index and breast cancer risk by hormone receptor status: Women’ Lifestyle and Health Study
Authors
Aesun Shin
Sven Sandin
Marie Lof
Karen L. Margolis
Kyeezu Kim
Elisabeth Couto
Hans Olov Adami
Elisabete Weiderpass
Publication date
01-12-2015
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
BMC Cancer / Issue 1/2015
Electronic ISSN: 1471-2407
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12885-015-1896-3

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