Research paper
Dietary lignan intake and postmenopausal breast cancer risk by estrogen and progesterone receptor status.
Study answer
What this study found
Higher total plant lignans and enterolignans were associated with lower risk of postmenopausal breast cancer, particularly for ER+/PR+ tumors. For ER+/PR+ cancers, the highest vs lowest quartile of total plant lignans yielded RR 0.72 (95% CI 0.58–0.88); total enterolignans RR 0.77 (95% CI 0.62–0.95). Lariciresinol showed a significant inverse association with ER+/PR+ cancer (RR 0.82; 95% CI 0.71–0.95). No clear associations with ER−/PR+, ER+/PR−, or ER−/PR− cancers. Conclusion: In Western populations with low soy intake, higher dietary lignan intake may modestly reduce risk of postmenopausal…
- Study & population
- Prospective cohort (E3N) of 58,049 postmenopausal French women, aged 41–72 at baseline; observational design; dietary lignan and enterolignan intakes estimated from a validated self-administered diet history questionnaire; outcome: incident primary invasive breast cancer; analyses used multivariable Cox proportional hazards models with stratification by…
- Key limitation
- Potential exposure misclassification from self-reported diet; residual confounding; incomplete receptor-status data (~20% without ER/PR status); cohort is selected and highly educated, limiting generalizability; enterolignan exposure estimated indirectly and may not capture individual gut microbiota variation.
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Open PDFOriginal abstract
BACKGROUND Studies conducted in Asian populations have suggested that high consumption of soy-based foods that are rich in isoflavone phytoestrogens is associated with a reduced risk of breast cancer. However, the potential associations of other diet…