News Release

Other highlights of the July 16 JNCI

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Journal of the National Cancer Institute

High Fat Intake Associated with Increased Breast Cancer Risk

A large, prospective study of premenopausal women suggests that high intake of animal fat, especially from red meat and dairy products, is associated with an increase in risk of breast cancer.

Eunyoung Cho, Sc.D., of the Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, and colleagues examined the relationship between dietary fat intake and breast cancer risk among 90,655 premenopausal women ages 26 to 46 who were participating in the Nurses' Health Study II. The women completed questionnaires about how frequently they consumed certain foods and were followed for 8 years.

During the follow-up period, 714 women developed invasive breast cancer. Women who consumed the highest amounts of fat had a slightly higher risk of breast cancer than women who consumed the smallest amounts of fat. The increase was associated with intake of animal fat (red meat and high-fat dairy foods) and not vegetable fat. Intakes of both saturated and monounsaturated fat were associated with modest elevations in breast cancer risk.

Contact: Amy Dayton, Brigham and Women's Hospital, 617-534-1600, adayton2@partners.org.

Gynecologic Surgeries Associated with Reduced Risk of Ovarian Cancer

A new study suggests that gynecologic surgeries can substantially reduce the risk of ovarian and peritoneal cancers among women at high risk for the disease.

Joni L. Rutter, Ph.D., and Patricia Hartge, Sc.D., of the National Cancer Institute, and their colleagues looked at the history of gynecologic surgery among women with mutations in the breast and ovarian cancer susceptibility genes BRCA1/2 and noncarriers and found that in both groups of women, those who underwent a bilateral oophorectomy (removal of both ovaries) had a sustained reduction in risk of ovarian or peritoneal cancer. Other gynecologic surgeries such as tubal ligation and hysterectomy (removal of uterus) were associated with a 30% to 50% reduced risk of ovarian cancer, depending on the type of surgery, with surgery to remove some ovarian tissue associated with the most risk reduction.

"Bilateral oophorectomy may remove most of the risk, other surgeries that remove ovarian tissue may halve the risk, and hysterectomy and tubal ligation may modestly reduce the risk," the authors write. "Clinical decisions for ovarian cancer risk reduction in BRCA mutations carriers will necessarily involve the balancing of potential benefits and harms for each individual woman faced with this difficult decision."

Contact: NCI Office of Communications, 301-496-6641, ncipressofficers@mail.nih.gov.

Protein Overexpression Associated with Esophageal Cancer

Overexpression of leukotriene A4 hydrolase (LTA4H), a protein involved in the inflammation process, appears to be associated with the development of esophageal cancer, a new study has found.

Xiaoxin Chen, Ph.D., and Chung S. Yang, Ph.D., of Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, and their colleagues studied expression patterns of LTA4H in a rat model of esophageal cancer and in human esophageal cancer tissue. LTA4H was overexpressed in all rat esophageal cancers examined and in four of six human esophageal cancer tumor samples, compared with normal tissue. Rats treated with bestatin, an inhibitor of LTA4H, had a lower incidence of esophageal cancer than untreated rats. These findings suggest that LTA4H may be a potential target for the prevention of esophageal cancer.

Contact: Joseph Blumberg, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 732-932-7084, ext. 652, blumberg@ur.rutgers.edu.

Study Suggests PET Not Yet Ready for Breast Cancer Staging

Despite its promise as a noninvasive method for diagnosing cancers, positron emission tomography (PET) is not sensitive enough for evaluating lymph node status in patients with breast cancer and should not serve as an alternative to sentinel lymph node biopsy, researchers conclude in a commentary.

Ulrich Guller, M.D., of the University of Basel in Switzerland, and Markus Zuber, M.D., of the Kantonsspital Olten in Switzerland, and colleagues reviewed the current literature on the sensitivity of PET scanning in detecting lymph node metastases, compared with sentinel lymph node biopsy, and determined that PET does not have enough spatial resolution to detect early lymph node metastases in patients with breast cancer. They conclude that, at least for now, PET should not serve as an alternative to sentinel lymph node biopsy.

However, the authors acknowledge that new detection materials may be able to improve the sensitivity of PET and eventually allow it to replace invasive procedures in the evaluation of the nodal status of patients with breast cancer.

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Note: The Journal of the National Cancer Institute is published by Oxford University Press and is not affiliated with the National Cancer Institute. Attribution to the Journal of the National Cancer Institute is requested in all news coverage.


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