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

Jing-Hui Wu^a, You-Kang Chang^{b, c}, Yi-Cheng Hou^a, Wen-Jyun Chiu^a, Jiun-Rong Chen^d, Shu-Tzu Chen^d, Chao-Chuan Wu^{c, e}, Yun-Jau Chang^{f, g}, Yao-Jen Chang^{c, e}

^a Division of Nutrition, Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital, Buddhist Tzu Chi Medical Foundation, New Taipei, Taiwan
^b Department of Radiation Oncology, Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital, Buddhist Tzu Chi Medical Foundation, New Taipei, Taiwan
^c School of Medicine, Tzu Chi University, Hualien, Taiwan
^d School of Nutrition and Health Sciences, College of Public Health and Nutrition, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan
^e Department of General Surgery, Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital, Buddhist Tzu Chi Medical Foundation, New Taipei, Taiwan
^f Department of General Surgery, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
^g Department of General Surgery, Zhongxing Branch, Taipei City Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan

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Abstract
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.

Keywords
Breast cancer risk; Dietary pattern; Meat-fat diet; Principle component analysis