Breast cancer rates among Asian-Americans are lower than those of US w
hites but considerably higher than rates prevailing in Asia, It is sus
pected that migration to the US brings about a change in endocrine fun
ction among Asian women, although reasons for this change remain obscu
re, The high intake of soy in Asia and its reduced intake among Asian-
Americans has been suggested to partly explain the increase of breast
cancer rates in Asian-Americans. We conducted a population-based case-
control study of breast cancer among Chinese-, Japanese-, and Filipino
-American women in Los Angeles County MSA, San Francisco Oakland MSA,
and Oahu, Hawaii, Using a common questionnaire which assessed frequenc
y of intake of some 90 food items, 597 Asian-American women (70% of th
ose eligible) diagnosed with incident, primary breast cancer during 19
83-1987 and 966 population-based controls (75% of those eligible) were
interviewed, Controls were matched to cases on age, ethnicity, and ar
ea of residence, This analysis compares usual adult intake of soy (est
imated primarily from tofu intake) among breast cancer cases and contr
ol women, After adjustment for age, ethnicity and study area, intake o
f tofu was more than twice as high among Asian-American women born in
Asia (62 times per year) compared to those born in the US (30 times pe
r year), Among migrants, intake of tofu decreased with years of reside
nce in the US, Risk of breast cancer decreased with increasing frequen
cy of intake of tofu after adjustment for age, study area, ethnicity,
and migration history; the adjusted OR associated with each additional
serving per week was 0.85 (95% CI = 0.74-0.99), The protective effect
of high tofu intake was observed in pre- and postmenopausal women. Th
is association remained after adjustment for selected dietary factors
and menstrual and reproductive factors. However, this study was not de
signed specifically to investigate the role of soy intake and our asse
ssment of soy intake may be incomplete, We cannot discount the possibi
lity that soy intake is a marker of other protective aspects of Asian
diet and/or Asian lifestyle.