Dietary Patterns and Breast Cancer Risk: A Systematic Review

The association of dietary patterns representing multiple dietary components and breast cancer risk is not clearly understood. Our objective was to conduct a systematic review of the association between dietary patterns and breast cancer risk.

The original articles included, were published between January 2013 and May 2017 and characterized diets using a priori and posteriori approaches to examine associations between dietary patterns and breast cancer risk. A novel scoring matrix was used to grade posteriori dietary pattern alignment with the American Cancer Society dietary guidelines.

Seventeen case-control and nested case-control studies identified 15 healthy, and 10 unhealthy, dietary patterns determined posteriori, and 7 dietary indices determined a priori. Vegetables were consistently found in breast cancer protective patterns whereas saturated fat and red and processed meats were consistently found in patterns associated with increased breast cancer risk.

Findings suggest that dietary patterns that include vegetables and limit saturated fat and red and processed meats may lower breast cancer risk.