Folate and breast cancer
This article was originally published in The Tan Sheet
Executive Summary
"Sufficient dietary intake of folate" may mitigate the increased risk of breast cancer associated with alcohol consumption, an Aug. 8 British Medical Journal study finds. Laura Baglietto, Cancer Epidemiology Centre, Melbourne, et al., used data on diet and alcohol consumption gathered from 17,447 women through the Melbourne collaborative cohort study from 1990-1994. Participants were followed until Dec. 31, 2003, and breast cancer cases were identified through the Victorian cancer registry. "Compared with abstainers who consumed 200 mg/day of folate, the hazard ratio was two-fold higher for those women who consumed the most alcohol (40 g/day or more)," Baglietto et al. observe. Women with high alcohol consumption and low folate intake had an increased risk of breast cancer, while those with high alcohol consumption and moderate or high folate intake had no increased risk, the authors conclude...