Urinary phytoestrogens and postmenopausal breast cancer risk

Phytoestrogens are defined as plant substances that are structurally or fun ctionally similar to estradiol, We report the associations of two major phy toestrogens, genistein and enterolactone, with breast cancer risk, using ur inary specimens collected 1-9 years before breast cancer was diagnosed. The subjects were 88 breast cancer cases and 268 controls, selected from a coh ort of postmenopausal women (n = 14,697) who participated in a breast cance r screening program, Mean levels of urinary genistein and enterolactone wer e determined by time resolved fluoroimmunoassay, using an average of two ov ernight urinary samples obtained from each participant on the first and the second screening rounds with a time interval of approximately 1 year. Odds ratios (ORs) of the highest to the lowest tertile of urinary phytoestrogen /creatinine concentrations and 95% confidence intervals (Cls) were computed . Higher urinary genistein excretion was weakly and nonsignificantly associ ated with a reduced breast cancer risk, OR for the highest tertile compared with lowest tertile was 0.83; 95% CI, 0,46-1,51, Higher urinary enterolact one excretion was weakly and nonsignificantly associated with an increased breast cancer risk. OR for the highest tertile compared with the lowest ter tile was 1.43; 95% CI, 0,79-2,59, Tests for trends for both phytoestrogens were nonsignificant, We were not able to detect the previously reported pro tective effects of genistein and enterolactone on breast cancer risk in our postmenopausal population of Dutch women. Such an effect may be smaller th an expected and/or limited to specific subgroups of the population.