DIET DURING ADOLESCENCE AND RISK OF BREAST-CANCER AMONG YOUNG-WOMEN

Background: A variety of breast cancer risk factors pertain to a woman 's adolescence and may be related to nutritional influences, We assess ed risk of early-onset breast cancer related to diet during adolescenc e in a case-control study, Methods: Study participants were accrued fr om the following three geographical regions covered by cancer registri es: Atlanta, GA; Seattle/Puget Sound, WA; and central New Jersey, Case patients (n = 1647) were newly diagnosed with breast cancer, and cont rol subjects (n = 1501) were identified by random-digit-dialing techni ques. In an interview, each subject was asked to recall the frequency of consumption and portion size of 29 key food items at ages 12-13 yea rs, Mothers of a subset of respondents completed questionnaires, and f ood groups were recalculated after removal of foods with poor agreemen t between mother and daughter, Logistic regression analyses were used to calculate odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals, Results: When h igh versus low quartiles of consumption were compared, there was a sug gestion of a reduced risk associated with high consumption of fruits a nd vegetables, although this finding was not statistically significant , Slight increases (of borderline statistical significance) in risk of breast cancer were found for intake of chicken or high-fat meat, Inta ke of animal fat, high-fat foods, high-fat snacks and desserts, or dai ry products during adolescence had no apparent influence on breast can cer risk, Removal of foods suspected to be poorly recalled by the daug hters did not change any of the risk estimates, Conclusion: These data do not provide evidence for a strong influence of dietary intakes dur ing adolescence on risk of early-onset breast cancer.