Skip to Main Content

An official website of the United States government

Principal Investigator
Name
Regina Ziegler
Institution
NCI, DCEG, EBP
Email
About this CDAS Project
Study
PLCO (Learn more about this study)
Project ID
2009-0002
Initial CDAS Request Approval
Jan 28, 2009
Title
Studies of Diet and ER-negative Breast Cancer with the Diet and Cancer Pooling Project
Summary
With the growing number of epidemiologic publications on the relationships between dietary factors and cancer risk, pooled analyses that integrate and summarize results from multiple studies are becoming more necessary. In the ongoing Pooling Project of Prospective Studies of Diet and Cancer, begun in 1991, the primary data from prospective cohort studies meeting prespecified inclusion criteria are analyzed using standardized approaches for modeling exposure, confounding, and outcome. In addition to evaluating the main exposure-disease associations, analyses are also conducted to evaluate whether the exposure-disease associations are modified by other dietary and nondietary factors or vary among population subgroups or by cancer subtype. Study-specific relative risks are calculated using the Cox proportional hazards model and then pooled using a random- or mixed-effects model. The study-specific estimates are weighted by the inverse of their variances in forming summary estimates. The Pooling Project of Prospective Studies of Diet and Cancer will begin analyses of diet and estrogen receptor negative (ER-) breast cancer in the spring of 2009. Less is known about modifiable risk factors for ER-negative breast cancer than for ER-positive (ER+) breast cancer; yet ER- breast cancer occurs at younger ages, is less amenable to treatment, and is more likely to be fatal. A total of 22 cohorts, including nearly all of the major cohorts in the world, will provide data. PLCO has been invited to participate. Practically all of these cohorts, including PLCO, have insufficient numbers of ER- breast cancer to support accurate, precise robust, informative analyses of dietary factors. The dietary factors to be studied include fruits and vegetables, alcohol, and folate. These exposures were chosen on the basis of the limited published literature on the nutritional epidemiology of ER- breast cancer and on the availability of appropriate data from the majority of the cohorts.
Aims

The Diet and Cancer Pooling Project has two major aims with respect to ER- breast cancer. In the 22 cohorts that include women and have data on ER status, we will investigate whether <!--[if !supportLists]-->1. fruit and vegetable consumption is inversely associated with the risk of ER- breast cancer, and<!--[endif]--> 2. alcohol consumption is positively associated with the risk of ER- breast cancer, but the risk is attenuated among women with high intake of folate. Minor hypotheses to be evaluated concern BMI and carotenoids. BMI is hypothesized to increase risk of breast cancer; carotenoids are hypothesized to decrease risk.

Related Publications
  • Alcohol consumption and breast cancer risk by estrogen receptor status: in a pooled analysis of 20 studies.
    Jung S, Wang M, Anderson K, Baglietto L, Bergkvist L, Bernstein L, van den Brandt PA, Brinton L, Buring JE, Eliassen AH, Falk R, Gapstur SM, Giles GG, Goodman G, Hoffman-Bolton J, Horn-Ross PL, Inoue M, Kolonel LN, Krogh V, Lof M, ...show more Maas P, Miller AB, Neuhouser ML, Park Y, Robien K, Rohan TE, Scarmo S, Schouten LJ, Sieri S, Stevens VL, Tsugane S, Visvanathan K, Wilkens LR, Wolk A, Weiderpass E, Willett WC, Zeleniuch-Jacquotte A, Zhang SM, Zhang X, Ziegler RG, Smith-Warner SA
    Int J Epidemiol. 2016 Jun; Volume 45 (Issue 3): Pages 916-28 PUBMED