Advanced Search Abstract Background: Results of several studies have suggested that diet during adolescence may influence the risk of breast cancer in adulthood.
We evaluated whether an intervention to lower fat intake among adolescent girls altered their serum concentrations of sex hormones that, in adults, are related to breast cancer development.
Methods: We conducted an ancillary hormone study among of the girls who participated between and in the Dietary Intervention Study in Children, in which healthy, prepubertal, 8- to year-olds with elevated low-density lipoprotein cholesterol were randomly assigned to usual care or to a behavioral intervention that promoted a low-fat diet.
Median time on the intervention was 7 years. All P values are two-sided. Results: At the year 5 visit, girls in the intervention group had At the last visit, the luteal phase progesterone level was Conclusion: Modest reductions in fat intake during puberty are associated with changes in sex hormone concentrations that are consistent with alterations in the function of the hypothalamic—pituitary—ovarian axis.
Whether these changes influence breast cancer risk is currently unknown. The relationship between dietary fat and breast cancer risk has been studied extensively since the s, when Tannenbaum 1 observed that rats fed a high-fat diet had a higher incidence of mammary tumors than rats fed a low-fat diet. Comparisons of the breast cancer mortality rates among different countries according to the per capita fat consumption support the hypothesis that a high-fat diet may increase the incidence and mortality from breast cancer 2.
