Published in:
01-04-2020 | Breast Cancer | Original Contribution
Fatty acid intake and breast cancer in the Spanish multicase–control study on cancer (MCC-Spain)
Published in: European Journal of Nutrition | Issue 3/2020
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Purpose
To evaluate the association between dietary fat and fat subtype and breast cancer development.
Methods
We conducted a case–control study with 1181 cases of incident breast cancer, diagnosed between 2007 and 2012, and 1682 population controls frequency matched (by age, sex, and region) from the Spanish multicenter case–control study MCC-Spain.
Results
We found a significant protective effect in premenopausal women of total fat intake [OR 0.51 95% CI (0.31–0.86) highest versus lowest tertile], but no effect was observed in menopausal women [OR 1.15 95% CI (0.83–1.60)]. Analyzing by type of fat, this protective effect persisted only for the monounsaturated fatty acids [OR 0.51 95% CI (0.32–0.82)]. In contrast, other fatty acids did not have a significant effect. In addition, a protection against risk of breast cancer was found when polyunsaturated fats were “substituted” by monounsaturated, maintaining the same total fat intake [OR 0.68 95% CI (0.47–0.99)]. Finally, analyzing by breast cancer subtype, we found no effect, except in premenopausal women where intake of moderate [OR 0.52 95% CI (0.33–0.82)] and high monounsaturated fatty acids [OR 0.47 95% CI (0.27–0.82)] maintains a protective effect against ER/PR + tumors. In contrast, in menopausal women, a high intake of monounsaturated fatty acids was associated with higher risk of HER2 + tumors [OR 2.00 95% CI (0.97–4.13)].
Conclusion
Our study shows a differential effect of monounsaturated fatty acids according to menopausal status and breast cancer subtype.