Published in:
01-12-2009 | Original paper
Meat and egg consumption and risk of breast cancer among Chinese women
Published in: Cancer Causes & Control | Issue 10/2009
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Objective
The association between meat and egg consumption and breast cancer risk has been examined in previous studies, but the results were inconsistent. We conducted a hospital-based case–control study during June 2007 to August 2008 among Guangdong Chinese women to investigate associations between meat and egg intake and breast cancer risk.
Methods
Four hundred and thirty-eight consecutively recruited cases with primary breast cancer were frequency matched to 438 controls by age (5-year interval) and residence (rural/urban). Dietary intake was assessed by face-to-face interviews using a validated food frequency questionnaire. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence interval (CI) were obtained by using multiple unconditional logistic regression adjusted for various dietary and nondietary confounders.
Results
We observed a borderline increased association of processed meat intake with breast cancer risk (trend test p = 0.066). The multivariate-adjusted OR of breast cancer risk for the highest versus the lowest quartile was 1.44 (95% CI = 0.97–2.15). No significant association was found between total and red meat, poultry, fish, and egg intake and risk.
Conclusions
This study suggested that processed meat intake was associated with a possible increased risk of breast cancer. There was no significant association between consumption of total and red meat, poultry, fish, or egg with breast cancer risk.