Dietary Fiber And Whole Grain Intake In Relation To Breast Cancer Recurrence And Mortality

TJØNNELAND A. ¹ , OLSEN A. ¹

Purpose: Breast cancer is among the most prevalent cancers among women worldwide.  However, the importance of dietary and lifestyle factors for disease prognosis is still largely unknown, and the evidence upon which to base recommendations aimed at women living with breast cancer therefore slim. There are indications that whole grain foods or those rich in dietary fiber are associated with a lower mortality among women diagnosed with breast cancer, as was recently described in the WCRF Continuous Update Report. In the present study, we aim to examine how pre-diagnostic intake of whole grains and dietary fiber is associated with breast cancer recurrence and mortality in a prospective cohort. Methods: Incident breast cancer cases (n=2010) diagnosed among women participating in the Diet, Cancer and Health cohort (n=29,875), with complete information on the selected exposure variables, covariates, and outcome, were included in the study. A total of 422 have died, and of these, 290 with breast cancer as the main cause. The dietary variables of interest in this study are total dietary fiber and fiber from 4 sources: 1) vegetables, 2) fruits, 3) potatoes, and 4) cereals and cereal foods. For whole grains, two groupings are used: 1) total whole grain and 2) total whole grain products. The association between intake of whole grains and dietary fiber and all-cause or breast cancer-specific mortality will be investigated using Cox Proportional Hazards models. Follow-up time will be defined as time from date of breast cancer diagnosis until date of death or until last date of contact or end of follow-up for vital status. Results and conclusion: The study is currently underway, and the results are imminent; they will be finalized and ready for presentation at the conference. Funding: The project is funded by the Danish Cancer Society.