Dairy Consumption and Incidence of Breast Cancer in the 'Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra' (SUN) Project

• Published in: Nutrients Vol. 13; no. 2; p. 687
• Main Authors: Aguilera-Buenosvinos, Inmaculada, Fernandez-Lazaro, Cesar Ignacio, Romanos-Nanclares, Andrea, Gea, Alfredo, Sánchez-Bayona, Rodrigo, Martín-Moreno, Jose M, Martínez-González, Miguel Ángel, Toledo, Estefanía
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 01.02.2021; MDPI
• Subjects: Adult; Age; Alcohol use; Analysis; Breast cancer; Breast Neoplasms - epidemiology; Breast Neoplasms - etiology; Confidence intervals; Dairy products; Dairy Products - adverse effects; Dairy Products - statistics & numerical data; Diet; Diet Surveys; Disease prevention; Female; Food; Food habits; Health risks; Humans; Incidence; Longitudinal Studies; Medical records; Mediterranean population; Menopause; Middle Aged; Milk; Post-menopause; Postmenopausal women; Postmenopause; Premenopause; Proportional Hazards Models; Questionnaires; Regression analysis; Review boards; Risk Factors; Spain - epidemiology; Statistical analysis; SUN cohort; Surveys and Questionnaires; University graduates; Womens health; Spain; SUN cohort; breast cancer; Mediterranean population; dairy products
• ISSN: 2072-6643; 2072-6643
• DOI: 10.3390/nu13020687

Dairy products might influence breast cancer (BC) risk. However, evidence is inconsistent. We sought to examine the association between dairy product consumption-and their subtypes-and incident BC in a Mediterranean cohort. The SUN ("Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra") Project is a Spanish dynamic ongoing cohort of university graduates. Dairy product consumption was estimated through a previously validated 136-item food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). Incident BC was reported in biennial follow-up questionnaires and confirmed with revision of medical records and consultation of the National Death Index. Hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated with Cox regression models. Among 123,297 women-years of follow-up (10,930 women, median follow-up 12.1 years), we confirmed 119 incident BC cases. We found a nonlinear association between total dairy product consumption and BC incidence ( = 0.048) and a significant inverse association for women with moderate total dairy product consumption (HR = 0.49 (95% CI 0.28-0.84); HR = 0.49 (95% CI 0.29-0.84) = 0.623) and with moderate low-fat dairy product consumption (HR = 0.58 (95% CI 0.35-0.97); HR = 0.55 (95% CI 0.32-0.92), = 0.136). In stratified analyses, we found a significant inverse association between intermediate low-fat dairy product consumption and premenopausal BC and between medium total dairy product consumption and postmenopausal BC. Thus, dairy products, especially low-fat dairy products, may be considered within overall prudent dietary patterns.