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Trans-Fats Linked to Breast Cancer Risk in Study •
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Big US Study Links Breast Cancer to Drinking
By Deena Beasley
Reuters
Monday 14 April 2008
San Diego - A large U.S. study has linked alcohol consumption to an increased risk of the most common type of breast cancer in postmenopausal women.
The analysis of data from more than 184,000 women is the biggest of three major studies to conclude that drinking raises the risk of breast cancer for older women, Jasmine Lew, a researcher at the National Cancer Institute and the study's lead investigator said on Sunday.
The research found that women who had one to two small drinks a day were 32 percent more likely to develop a hormone-sensitive tumor. Three or more drinks a day raised the risk by 51 per cent.
"Regardless of the type of alcohol, the risk was evident," said Lew, presenting the findings here at a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research.
About 70 percent of women who are diagnosed with breast cancer have tumors that are positive for both the estrogen and progesterone receptors.
Lew said results from the NCI study lend credence to the theory that alcohol's interference with the metabolism of estrogen raises the risk of cancer.
She said it was too early to make public health recommendations but said women should talk with their doctors to assess risk factors and consider lifestyle changes.
Other studies have linked light consumption of alcoholic drinks, especially red wine, to heart protection.
Breast cancer is the second most common cancer killer of women, after lung cancer. It will be diagnosed in 1.2 million people globally this year and will kill 500,000.
Editing by Cynthia Osterman.
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Trans-Fats Linked to Breast Cancer Risk in Study
By Maggie Fox
Reuters
Monday 14 April 2008
Washington - Trans-fats, which are being phased out of food because they clog arteries, may raise the risk of getting breast cancer, European researchers reported on Friday.
They found that women with the highest blood levels of trans-fats had about twice the risk of breast cancer compared to women with the lowest levels.
"At this stage, we can only recommend limiting the consumption of processed foods, the source of industrially produced trans-fatty acid," the researchers wrote in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
Trans-fats or trans-fatty acids are made in creating artificially hardened fats - in the process of hydrogenization, for instance.
They were, ironically, meant to be healthful replacements for artery-clogging saturated fats such as butter and lard.
But the process of making vegetable oil behave like butter made it as unhealthful as butter. New York and California have banned trans-fats in restaurant foods. Canada and Britain have considered it and countless food companies have dropped them as an ingredient.
Veronique Chajes of the French national scientific research center at the University of Paris-South and colleagues studied women taking part in a large European cancer trial.
They looked at blood samples collected between 1995 and 1998 from 25,000 women who had volunteered to report on their eating and lifestyle habits and then be followed for years to see if they developed cancer.
They studied 363 women diagnosed with breast cancer, comparing their blood levels of fatty acids with those of women without cancer.
The higher the levels of trans-fatty acids, the more likely a woman was to have cancer, Chajes and colleagues found.
Women with higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids, being studied for their potential benefits to health, were not any less likely to have breast cancer, the researchers found.
Obese women are more likely to develop breast cancer, among other types of cancer, and high-fat diets are also linked with breast cancer.
Trans-fats can be found in cooking fats, baked goods, snacks and a variety of other prepared foods. Omega-3 fatty acids are found in fatty fish such as salmon, walnuts and leafy green vegetables.
Editing by Xavier Briand.
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