Dietary fat and breast cancer risk in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition 1-3

Background: Epidemiologic studies have produced conflicting results with respect to an association of dietary fat with breast cancer. Objective: We aimed to investigate the association between fat consumption and breast cancer. Design:Weprospectivelyinvestigatedfatconsumptioninalarge(n 319 826), geographically and culturally heterogeneous cohort of European women enrolled in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition who completed a dietary questionnaire. After a mean of 8.8 y of follow-up, 7119 women developed breastcancer.Coxproportionalhazardmodels,stratifiedbyageand center and adjusted for energy intake and confounders, were used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) for breast cancer. Results: An association between high saturated fat intake and greaterbreastcancerriskwasfound[HR1.13(95%CI:1.00,1.27; P for trend 0.038) for the highest quintile of saturated fat intake compared with the lowest quintile: 1.02 (1.00, 1.04) for a 20% increase in saturated fat consumption (continuous variable)]. No significantassociationofbreastcancerwithtotal,monounsaturated,