Dietary consumption of phytochemicals and breast cancer risk in Mexican women.

OBJECTIVE

To perform an evaluation of selected phytochemicals intake and breast cancer (BC) risk in Mexican women.

METHODS

We conducted hospital-based case-control study.

METHODS

Mexico City between 1994 and 1996.

METHODS

A total of 141 histologically confirmed BC cases were age-matched (+/-3 years) to an equal number of hospital controls. The reproductive history of each woman was obtained by direct interview. The dietary consumption of flavonols, flavones, flavan-3-ols, cinnamic acid, lariciresinol, pinoresinol, secoisolariciresinol, matairesinol and coumestrol was obtained by means of a validated FFQ.

RESULTS

Among postmenopausal women, high dietary intake of flavonols and flavones was associated with a significant reduction of BC risk (high v. low tertile: OR = 0.21, 95 % CI 0.07, 0.60, P for trend = 0.004 and OR = 0.29, 95 % CI 0.10, 0.82, P for trend = 0.025, respectively); consumption of lignans (lariciresinol and pinoresinol) showed a similar effect, but only among premenopausal women (high v. low tertile: OR = 0.32, 95 % CI 0.10, 0.99, P for trend = 0.051 and OR = 0.19, 95 % CI 0.06, 0.62, P for trend = 0.006, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS

Our results support a protective role of specific dietary phytochemicals in BC risk by menopausal status, independent of other reproductive factors.