Meat-fat dietary pattern may increase the risk of breast cancer-A case-control study in Taiwan

Objectives: We investigated the association between dietary patterns and breast cancer risk in Taiwan. Materials and Methods: This case-control study compared the dietary patterns between 98 breast cancer patients and 103 age-matched controls. A questionnaire survey about 27 frequently consumed food items was conducted among 201 patients in a general surgical ward. Serum albumin, triglyceride, and total cholesterol levels were also investigated. Results: Five dietary patterns were defined via the principle component analysis: the meat-fat, pickle-vegetable, sugar-fried food, soy, and coffee-egg patterns. For the meat-fat dietary pattern, the third quartile and fourth quartile were significantly associated with higher breast cancer risk than the first quartile and second quartile with an odds ratio of 2.86 [95% confidence interval (CI)=1.25-6.53] and 3.11 (95% CI=1.33-7.27) respectively; p=0.002. In addition, cooking with oil was reported significantly more often in the fourth meat-fat dietary pattern quartile, as shown by the responses to eight out of 12 questions about cooking methods. Conclusion: These results revealed that meat was associated with a higher breast cancer risk, and a high fat intake might play an important role in this association.