Top

Cancer Causes & Control

Published in:

Open Access 01-11-2010 | Original paper

Dairy consumption and calcium intake and risk of breast cancer in a prospective cohort: The Norwegian Women and Cancer study

Authors: Anette Hjartåker, Magne Thoresen, Dagrun Engeset, Eiliv Lund

Published in: Cancer Causes & Control | Issue 11/2010

Abstract

Objective

To study the association between consumption of dairy products and calcium intake and risk of breast cancer risk according to menopausal status.

Methods

In a population-based prospective cohort study of 64,904 Norwegian women followed from 1996/1999 through 2006, we examined total dairy consumption and consumption of various dairy products in relation to pre- and postmenopausal breast cancer risk. We also examined breast cancer in relation to calcium intake and to milk consumption during childhood and performed additional analyses corrected for measurement errors in the dietary data. In total, 218 premenopausal and 1,189 postmenopausal incident breast cancer cases were diagnosed during follow-up.

Results

Total dairy, adult, and childhood milk consumption was not associated with either pre- or postmenopausal breast cancer risk. Premenopausal women with the highest consumption of white cheese had half the risk of breast cancer compared to those with the lowest consumption (hazard rate ratio in the 4th quartile vs. the 1st quartile 0.50, 95% confidence interval 0.29–0.87). Total calcium intake tended to be inversely related to premenopausal (hazard rate ratio in the 4th quartile vs. the 1st quartile 0.65, 95% confidence interval 0.39–1.08) and postmenopausal breast cancer (hazard rate ratio in the 4th quartile vs. the 1st quartile 0.85, 95% confidence interval 0.70–1.04). Correcting for measurement errors did not alter the results substantially, nor did exclusion of early cancer cases.

Conclusion

Dairy consumption is not strongly related to breast cancer risk in this prospective study. A non-significant negative association between calcium intake and breast cancer risk was seen, particularly among premenopausal women.

Hjartaker A, Lagiou A, Slimani N et al (2002) Consumption of dairy products in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) cohort: data from 35,955 24-hour dietary recalls in 10 European countries. Public Health Nutr 5:1259–1271CrossRefPubMed

Bingham SA, Day N (2006) Commentary: fat and breast cancer: time to re-evaluate both methods and results? Int J Epidemiol 35:1022–1024CrossRefPubMed

Cui Y, Rohan TE (2006) Vitamin D, calcium, and breast cancer risk: a review. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 15:1427–1437CrossRefPubMed

Moorman PG, Terry PD (2004) Consumption of dairy products and the risk of breast cancer: a review of the literature. Am J Clin Nutr 80:5–14PubMed

Allen NE, Roddam AW, Allen DS et al (2005) A prospective study of serum insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I), IGF-II, IGF-binding protein-3 and breast cancer risk. Br J Cancer 92:1283–1287CrossRefPubMed

Parodi PW (2005) Dairy product consumption and the risk of breast cancer. J Am Coll Nutr 24:556S–568SPubMed

McCann SE, Ip C, Ip MM et al (2004) Dietary intake of conjugated linoleic acids and risk of premenopausal and postmenopausal breast cancer, Western New York Exposures and Breast Cancer Study (WEB Study). Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 13:1480–1484PubMed

Larsson SC, Bergkvist L, Wolk A (2009) Conjugated linoleic acid intake and breast cancer risk in a prospective cohort of Swedish Women. Am J Clin Nutr 90:1–5CrossRef

Boyd NF, Martin LJ, Noffel M, Lockwood GA, Trichler DL (1993) A meta-analysis of studies of dietary fat and breast cancer risk. Br J Cancer 68:627–636PubMed

10.

Missmer SA, Smith-Warner SA, Spiegelman D et al (2002) Meat and dairy food consumption and breast cancer: a pooled analysis of cohort studies. Int J Epidemiol 31:78–85CrossRefPubMed

11.

Gaard M, Tretli S, Loken EB (1995) Dietary fat and the risk of breast cancer: a prospective study of 25,892 Norwegian women. Int J Cancer 63:13–17CrossRefPubMed

12.

Knekt P, Jarvinen R, Seppanen R, Pukkala E, Aromaa A (1996) Intake of dairy products and the risk of breast cancer. Br J Cancer 73:687–691PubMed

13.

Toniolo P, Riboli E, Shore RE, Pasternack BS (1994) Consumption of meat, animal products, protein, and fat and risk of breast cancer: a prospective cohort study in New York. Epidemiology 5:391–397CrossRefPubMed

14.

McCullough ML, Rodriguez C, Diver WR et al (2005) Dairy, calcium, and vitamin D intake and postmenopausal breast cancer risk in the Cancer Prevention Study II Nutrition Cohort. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 14:2898–2904CrossRefPubMed

15.

Mills PK, Beeson WL, Phillips RL, Fraser GE (1989) Dietary habits and breast cancer incidence among Seventh-day Adventists. Cancer 64:582–590CrossRefPubMed

16.

Ursin G, Bjelke E, Heuch I, Vollset SE (1990) Milk consumption and cancer incidence: a Norwegian prospective study. Br J Cancer 61:454–459PubMed

17.

Byrne C, Ursin G, Ziegler RG (1996) A comparison of food habit and food frequency data as predictors of breast cancer in the NHANES I/NHEFS cohort. J Nutr 126:2757–2764PubMed

18.

Key TJ, Sharp GB, Appleby PN et al (1999) Soya foods and breast cancer risk: a prospective study in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. Br J Cancer 81:1248–1256CrossRefPubMed

19.

Voorrips LE, Brants HA, Kardinaal AF, Hiddink GJ, van den Brandt PA, Goldbohm RA (2002) Intake of conjugated linoleic acid, fat, and other fatty acids in relation to postmenopausal breast cancer: the Netherlands Cohort Study on Diet and Cancer. Am J Clin Nutr 76:873–882PubMed

20.

Park Y, Leitzmann MF, Subar AF, Hollenbeck A, Schatzkin A (2009) Dairy food, calcium, and risk of cancer in the NIH-AARP Diet and Health Study. Arch Intern Med 169:391–401CrossRefPubMed

21.

Shin MH, Holmes MD, Hankinson SE, Wu K, Colditz GA, Willett WC (2002) Intake of dairy products, calcium, and vitamin d and risk of breast cancer. J Natl Cancer Inst 94:1301–1311PubMed

22.

Kesse-Guyot E, Bertrais S, Duperray B et al (2007) Dairy products calcium and the risk of breast cancer: results of the French SU.VI.MAX prospective study. Ann Nutr Metab 51:139–145CrossRefPubMed

23.

Lin J, Manson JE, Lee I-M, Cook NR, Buring JE, Zhang SM (2007) Intakes of calcium and vitamin D and breast cancer risk in women. Arch Intern Med 167:1050–1059CrossRefPubMed

24.

Larsson SC, Bergkvist L, Wolk A (2009) Long-term dietary calcium intake and breast cancer risk in a prospective cohort of women. Am J Clin Nutr 89:277–282CrossRefPubMed

25.

Hjartaker A, Laake P, Lund E (2001) Childhood and adult milk consumption and risk of premenopausal breast cancer in a cohort of 48,844 women—the Norwegian women and cancer study. Int J Cancer 93:888–893CrossRefPubMed

26.

Cancer Registry of Norway (2009) Cancer in Norway 2008—cancer incidence, mortality, survival and prevalence in Norway. Cancer Registry of Norway, Oslo (Norway)

27.

Norwegian Directorate of Health (2008) Trends in the Norwegian diet 2008. Norwegian Directorate of Health, Oslo (Norway)

28.

Hjartaker A, Andersen LF, Lund E (2007) Comparison of diet measures from a food-frequency questionnaire with measures from repeated 24-hour dietary recalls. The Norwegian Women and Cancer Study. Public Health Nutr 10:1094–1103CrossRefPubMed

29.

Lund E, Dumeaux V, Braaten T et al (2008) Cohort profile: the Norwegian Women and Cancer Study NOWAC Kvinner og kreft. Int J Epidemiol 37:36–41CrossRefPubMed

30.

http://uit.no/kk/NOWAC/. www.08-06-2010

31.

Lund E, Gram IT (1998) Response rate according to title and length of questionnaire. Scand J Soc Med 26:154–160PubMed

32.

Hjartaker A, Lund E, Bjerve KS (1997) Serum phospholipid fatty acid composition and habitual intake of marine foods registered by a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire. Eur J Clin Nutr 1:736–742CrossRef

33.

Parr CL, Hjartaker A, Scheel I, Lund E, Laake P, Veierod MB (2008) Comparing methods for handling missing values in food-frequency questionnaires and proposing k nearest neighbours imputation: effects on dietary intake in the Norwegian Women and Cancer study (NOWAC). Public Health Nutr 11:361–370CrossRefPubMed

34.

National Association for Nutrition, Health (1989) Household measures and weights for foods. National Association for Nutrition and Health, Otta (Norway)

35.

National Council for Nutrition, Physical Activity, Norwegian Food Control Authority, Institute for Nutrition Research UoO (2001) The big food composition table. Gyldendal undervisning, Oslo (Norway)

36.

Willett W, Stampfer MJ (1986) Total energy intake: implications for epidemiologic analyses. Am J Epidemiol 124:17–27PubMed

37.

Parr CL, Veierod MB, Laake P, Lund E, Hjartaker A (2006) Test-retest reproducibility of a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) and estimated effects on disease risk in the Norwegian Women and Cancer Study (NOWAC). Nutr J 5:4CrossRefPubMed

38.

Bakken K, Eggen AE, Lund E (2001) Hormone replacement therapy in Norwegian women, 1996–1997. Maturitas 40:131–141CrossRefPubMed

39.

Waaseth M, Bakken K, Dumeaux V et al (2008) Hormone replacement therapy use and plasma levels of sex hormones in the Norwegian Women and Cancer postgenome cohort—a cross-sectional analysis. BMC Women’s Health 8:1CrossRefPubMed

40.

Lund E (1981) Pilot study for the evaluation of completeness of reporting to the Cancer Registry. Incidence of cancer in Norway 1978. The Cancer Registry of Norway, Oslo (Norway), pp 11–14

41.

Harvei S, Tretli S, Langmark F (1996) Quality of prostate cancer data in the cancer registry of Norway. Eur J Cancer 32A:104–110CrossRefPubMed

42.

Larsen I, Småstuen M, Parkin DM, Bray F (2007) Data quality at the cancer registry of Norway. In: Bray F (ed) Cancer in Norway 2006—cancer incidence, mortality, survival and prevalence in Norway. Cancer Registry of Norway, Oslo (Norway)

43.

Rosner B, Spiegelman D, Willett WC (1990) Correction of logistic regression relative risk estimates and confidence intervals for measurement error: the case of multiple covariates measured with error. Am J Epidemiol 132:734–745PubMed

44.

Spiegelman D, McDermott A, Rosner B (1997) Regression calibration method for correcting measurement-error bias in nutritional epidemiology. Am J Clin Nutr 65:1179S–1186SPubMed

45.

Almquist M, Manjer J, Bondeson L, Bondeson AG (2007) Serum calcium and breast cancer risk: results from a prospective cohort study of 7,847 women. Cancer Causes Control 18:595–602CrossRefPubMed

46.

Chlebowski RT, Blackburn GL (2007) Diet and breast cancer recurrence. JAMA 298:2135–2136CrossRefPubMed

47.

Jacobson EA, James KA, Newmark HL, Carroll KK (1989) Effects of dietary fat, calcium, and vitamin D on growth and mammary tumorigenesis induced by 7, 12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene in female Sprague-Dawley rats. Cancer Res 49:6300–6303PubMed

48.

Sergeev IN (2005) Calcium signaling in cancer and vitamin D. J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol 97:145–151CrossRefPubMed

49.

van der Pols JC, Bain C, Gunnell D, Smith GD, Frobisher C, Martin RM (2007) Childhood dairy intake and adult cancer risk: 65-y follow-up of the Boyd Orr cohort. Am J Clin Nutr 86:1722–1729PubMed

50.

Hislop TG, Coldman AJ, Elwood JM, Brauer G, Kan L (1986) Childhood and recent eating patterns and risk of breast cancer. Cancer Detect Prev 9:47–58PubMed

51.

Michels KB, Rosner BA, Chumlea WC, Colditz GA, Willett WC (2006) Preschool diet and adult risk of breast cancer. Int J Cancer 118:749–754CrossRefPubMed

52.

Potischman N, Weiss HA, Swanson CA et al (1998) Diet during adolescence and risk of breast cancer among young women. J Natl Cancer Inst 90:226–233CrossRefPubMed

53.

Frazier AL, Li L, Cho E, Willett WC, Colditz GA (2004) Adolescent diet and risk of breast cancer. Cancer Causes Control 15:73–82CrossRefPubMed

54.

Pryor M, Slattery ML, Robison LM, Egger M (1989) Adolescent diet and breast cancer in Utah. Cancer Res 49:2161–2167PubMed

55.

Shu XO, Jin F, Dai Q et al (2001) Soyfood intake during adolescence and subsequent risk of breast cancer among Chinese women. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 10:483–488PubMed

56.

Liu G, Hu X, Chakrabarty S (2009) Calcium sensing receptor down-regulates malignant cell behavior and promotes chemosensitivity in human breast cancer cells. Cell Calcium 45:216–225CrossRefPubMed

57.

Kipnis V, Midthune D, Freedman LS et al (2001) Empirical evidence of correlated biases in dietary assessment instruments and its implications. Am J Epidemiol 153:394–403CrossRefPubMed

58.

Kipnis V, Subar AF, Midthune D et al (2003) Structure of dietary measurement error: results of the OPEN biomarker study. Am J Epidemiol 158:14–21CrossRefPubMed

Title: Dairy consumption and calcium intake and risk of breast cancer in a prospective cohort: The Norwegian Women and Cancer study
Authors: Anette Hjartåker
Magne Thoresen
Dagrun Engeset
Eiliv Lund
Publication date: 01-11-2010
Publisher: Springer Netherlands
Published in: Cancer Causes & Control / Issue 11/2010
Print ISSN: 0957-5243
Electronic ISSN: 1573-7225
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-010-9615-5

Webinar | 19-02-2024 | 17:30 (CET)

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on antibody–drug conjugates in cancer

Watch now

Antibody–drug conjugates (ADCs) are novel agents that have shown promise across multiple tumor types. Explore the current landscape of ADCs in breast and lung cancer with our experts, and gain insights into the mechanism of action, key clinical trials data, existing challenges, and future directions.

Dr. Véronique Diéras

Prof. Fabrice Barlesi

Developed by: Springer Medicine

At a glance: The ONWARDS insulin icodec trials

Springer Medicine

Abstract

Objective

Methods

Results

Conclusion

Please log in to get access to this content

Other articles of this Issue 11/2010

Is there any interaction between domestic radon exposure and air pollution from traffic in relation to childhood leukemia risk?

Drinking of maté and the risk of cancers of the upper aerodigestive tract in Latin America: a case–control study

Pattern-based information extraction from pathology reports for cancer registration

Obesity is associated with improved survival in patients with organ-confined clear-cell kidney cancer

Polymorphisms in oxidative stress and inflammation pathway genes, low-dose ionizing radiation, and the risk of breast cancer among US radiologic technologists

Body mass index, agricultural pesticide use, and cancer incidence in the Agricultural Health Study cohort

Keynote webinar | Spotlight on antibody–drug conjugates in cancer