Epidemiol Health.  2013;35:e2013003.

Cohort Study of Risk Factors for Breast Cancer in Post Menopausal Women

• Hartz AJ
• He T

Abstract

OBJECTIVES
The present study assessed more than 800 potential risk factors to identify new predictors of breast cancer and compare the independence and relative importance of established risk factors.
METHODS
Data were collected by the Women's Health Initiative and included 147,202 women ages 50 to 79 who were enrolled from 1993 to 1998 and followed for 8 years. Analyses performed in 2011 and 2012 used the Cox proportional hazard regression to test the association between more than 800 baseline risk factors and incident breast cancer.
RESULTS
Baseline factors independently associated with subsequent breast cancer at the p<0.001 level (in decreasing order of statistical significance) were breast aspiration, family history, age, weight, history of breast biopsies, estrogen and progestin use, fewer live births, greater age at menopause, history of thyroid cancer, breast tenderness, digitalis use, alcohol intake, white race, not restless, no vaginal dryness, relative with prostate cancer, colon polyps, smoking, no breast augmentation, and no osteoporosis. Risk factors previously reported that were not independently associated with breast cancer in the present study included socioeconomic status, months of breast feeding, age at first birth, adiposity measures, adult weight gain, timing of initiation of hormone therapy, and several dietary, psychological, and exercise variables. Family history was not found to alter the risk associated with other factors.
CONCLUSIONS
These results suggest that some risk factors not commonly studied may be important for breast cancer and some frequently cited risk factors may be relatively unimportant or secondary.

Keyword

Breast cancer; Risk factors; Obesity; Postmenopausal hormone replacement therapy; Thyroid cancer; Breast augmentation

MeSH Terms

Adiposity
Adult
Biopsy
Birth Order
Breast
Breast Feeding
Breast Neoplasms
Cohort Studies
Colon
Continental Population Groups
Digitalis
Estrogen Replacement Therapy
Estrogens
Female
Humans
Live Birth
Menopause
Obesity
Osteoporosis
Polyps
Prostatic Neoplasms
Risk Factors
Smoke
Smoking
Social Class
Thyroid Neoplasms
Weight Gain
Women's Health
Estrogens
Smoke