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Adolescent Diet and Breast Cancer Risk

  • Cancer (MF Leitzmann, Section Editor)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Although breast cancer risk increases with age, the importance of early events on breast cancer development is increasingly recognized. Compared to the plethora of studies on adult dietary exposures and breast cancer risk, the field of adolescent diet and breast cancer risk is still in its infancy. We review the data on breast cancer risk and diet during adolescence (defined as between ages 11 and 19) with a focus on the dietary exposures that have been investigated most in adult diet. The current literature suggests possible associations with dietary intake of soy and red meat and breast cancer risk. However, the lack of strong associations for other exposures may be due to methodological issues regarding precise measurement and a paucity of published studies. Overall, the area of early life exposures and cancer risk deserves more research and increased resources to advance the field.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

    Maryam S. Farvid

  2. Harvard/Massachusetts General Hospital Center on Genomics, Vulnerable Populations, and Health Disparities, Mongan Institute for Health Policy, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

    Maryam S. Farvid

  3. Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, 450 Brookline Avenue, Boston, MA, 02215, USA

    Wendy Y. Chen

  4. Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

    Wendy Y. Chen

Authors
  1. Maryam S. Farvid
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  2. Wendy Y. Chen
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Correspondence to Wendy Y. Chen.

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Maryam S. Farvid and Wendy Y. Chen declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Cancer

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Farvid, M.S., Chen, W.Y. Adolescent Diet and Breast Cancer Risk. Curr Nutr Rep 5, 29–33 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13668-016-0155-9

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