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Dietary patterns and breast cancer risk in a prospective Japanese study

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Abstract

Background

The association between dietary patterns and breast cancer has been inconsistent.

Methods

This study examined associations between dietary patterns and risk of developing breast cancer among 23,172 women from the Japan Collaborative Cohort Study, including 119 incidences of breast cancer diagnosed during a median 16.9-year follow-up period. Factor analysis was conducted to obtain dietary patterns, and Cox proportional models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HR) and 95 % confidence intervals (95 % CI) for breast cancer morbidity.

Results

Three dietary patterns were identified: ‘‘vegetable pattern’’ (vegetables, potatoes, seaweed, tofu, fruits, fresh fish, eggs, and miso soup); ‘‘animal food pattern’’ (meat, deep-fried foods, fried vegetables, fish paste and salt-preserved fish); and “dairy product pattern’’ (milk, dairy products, fruits, coffee and tea). After adjusting for potential confounders, the vegetable and dairy product patterns were not significantly associated with risk of breast cancer. However, the animal food pattern was significantly associated with a decreased risk of breast cancer morbidity among premenopausal women by HR 0.47 for the 2nd tertile (95 % CI 0.22–1.00) and HR 0.42 for the 3rd tertile (95 % CI 0.18–0.93), compared with the bottom tertile (p for trend 0.04).

Conclusion

We found no significant association between the vegetable and dairy product dietary patterns and breast cancer risk; however, an animal product diet may reduce risk of breast cancer among premenopausal Japanese women.

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Abbreviations

BC:

Breast cancer

BMI:

Body mass index

CI:

Confidence interval

FFQ:

Food frequency questionnaire

HR:

Hazard ratio

JACC:

Japan Collaborative Cohort (study)

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Acknowledgments

We wish to express our sincere thanks to Drs. Kunio Aoki and Yoshiyuki Ohno, Professors Emeriti of the Nagoya University School of Medicine and former chairpersons of the JACC Study. For their encouragement and support during this study, we are also greatly indebted to: Dr. Haruo Sugano, former Director of the Cancer Institute, Tokyo, who made substantial contributions to the initiation of the JACC Study; Dr. Tomoyuki Kitagawa, Director Emeritus of the Cancer Institute of the Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research and former project leader of the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Priority Area “Cancer”; and Dr. Kazuo Tajima, Aichi Cancer Center, who was the previous project leader of the Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Priority Area of Cancer Epidemiology.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Public Health, Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine, North 15 West 7 Kita-ku, Sapporo, 060-8638, Japan

    Reiji Kojima, Emiko Okada, Shigekazu Ukawa & Akiko Tamakoshi

  2. Department of Pediatrics, Japan Self-Defense Forces Sapporo Hospital, Hokkaido, 005-8543, Japan

    Reiji Kojima

  3. Department of Public Health, School of Medicine, Sapporo Medical University, Hokkaido, 060-8556, Japan

    Mitsuru Mori

  4. Department of Preventive Medicine, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya, Aichi, 466-8550, Japan

    Kenji Wakai

  5. Department of Food Science and Nutrition, School of Human Science and Environment, University of Hyogo, Hyogo, 670-0092, Japan

    Chigusa Date

  6. Public Health, Department of Social and Environmental Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University, Osaka, 565-0871, Japan

    Hiroyasu Iso

Authors
  1. Reiji Kojima
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  2. Emiko Okada
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  3. Shigekazu Ukawa
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  4. Mitsuru Mori
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  5. Kenji Wakai
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  6. Chigusa Date
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  7. Hiroyasu Iso
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  8. Akiko Tamakoshi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shigekazu Ukawa.

Ethics declarations

Financial support

This work was supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture of Japan (Monbusho), Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Priority Areas of Cancer, and Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Priority Areas of Cancer Epidemiology from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (Monbu-Kagaku-sho; Nos. 61010076, 62010074, 63010074, 1010068, 2151065, 3151064, 4151063, 5151069, 6279102, 11181101, 17015022, 18014011, 20014026 and 20390156). Another Grant-in-Aid was received from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Health and Labor Sciences Research Grants, Japan (Comprehensive Research on Cardiovascular and Life-Style Related Diseases: H25-Junkankitou [Seisaku]-Ippan-003).

Ethics approval

This study was approved by the Ethics Board of Nagoya University School of Medicine.

Conflict of interest

All authors declare that there are no conflicts of interests.

Appendix: Members of the Japan Collaborative Cohort Study Group

Appendix: Members of the Japan Collaborative Cohort Study Group

The present members of the JACC Study Group who coauthored this paper include: Dr. Akiko Tamakoshi (present chairperson of the study group), Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine, Dr. Mitsuru Mori, Sapporo Medical University School of Medicine, Dr. Yoshihiro Kaneko, Akita University Graduate School of Medicine, Dr. Ichiro Tsuji, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Dr. Yosikazu Nakamura, Jichi Medical School, Dr. Hiroyasu Iso, Osaka University School of Medicine, Dr. Kazumasa Yamagishi, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, Dr. Haruo Mikami, Chiba Cancer Center, Dr. Michiko Kurosawa, Juntendo University School of Medicine, Dr. Yoshiharu Hoshiyama, Yokohama Soei University, Dr. Naohito Tanabe, University of Niigata Prefecture, Dr. Koji Tamakoshi, Nagoya University Graduate School of Health Science, Dr. Kenji Wakai, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Dr. Shinkan Tokudome, National Institute of Health and Nutrition, Dr. Koji Suzuki, Fujita Health University School of Health Sciences, Dr. Shuji Hashimoto & Dr. Hiroshi Yatsuya, Fujita Health University School of Medicine, Dr. Shogo Kikuchi, Aichi Medical University School of Medicine, Dr. Yasuhiko Wada, Faculty of Nutrition, University of Kochi, Dr. Takashi Kawamura, Kyoto University Health Service, Dr. Yoshiyuki Watanabe, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine Graduate School of Medical Science, Dr. Kotaro Ozasa, Radiation Effects Research Foundation, Dr. Kazuya Mikami, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine Graduate School of Medical Science, Dr. Chigusa Date, School of Human Science and Environment, University of Hyogo, Dr. Kiyomi Sakata, Iwate Medical University, Dr. Yoichi Kurozawa, Tottori University Faculty of Medicine, Dr. Takesumi Yoshimura and Dr. Yoshihisa Fujino, University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Dr. Akira Shibata, Kurume University, Dr. Naoyuki Okamoto, Kanagawa Cancer Center and Dr. Hideo Shio, Long-Term Care Health Facility Caretown Minamikusatsu, Shiga.

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Kojima, R., Okada, E., Ukawa, S. et al. Dietary patterns and breast cancer risk in a prospective Japanese study. Breast Cancer 24, 152–160 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12282-016-0689-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12282-016-0689-0

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