Dietary calcium may prevent the spread of breast cancer to bone

A strong skeleton is less likely to be penetrated by metastasizing cancer cells, so a fortified glass of milk might be the way to block cancer’s spread, according to researchers at the ANZAC Research Institute in Concord, Australia. Using a mouse model of breast cancer metastasis, the researchers found that a calcium deficiency may increase the tendency of advanced breast cancer to target bone. Dietary calcium, they reason, might help prevent the spread of breast cancer to bone and serve as an adjuvant treatment during therapy.Their findings are presented in the Oct. 1 issue of Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

According to the researchers, about 70 percent of patients who develop advanced breast cancer will have secondary tumors in the bone. The spread of cancer to bones leads to cellular processes that physically break down existing bone, leading to further pain and illness. In fact, the breakdown of bone and subsequent bone re-growth forms what senior author Colin R. Dunstan, Ph.D., terms a “vicious cycle” that turns bone into an environment conducive to cancer growth.

To better understand the role of bone turnover in the spread of cancer, Dunstan and his team compared the effects of a low- and high-calcium diet in mice. They found that dietary calcium deficiency – independent of the chemical factors that control turnover – was related to a significantly higher increase in cancer cell proliferation and the total proportion of bone that had been penetrated.

“These results could have implications for patients with breast cancer bone metastases or who are at high risk for developing metastatic disease,” Dunstan said. “Many older women in our community are known to be calcium deficient due to low calcium dietary intake or due to vitamin D deficiency. These women could be at increased risk for the devastating effects of bone metastases.”

According to Dunstan, his results call for further, directed clinical trials “to investigate how calcium and vitamin D status influence progression to metastatic disease, and to determine if corrections of calcium and vitamin D deficiencies are important in breast cancer patients.”

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Article adapted by MD Only Weblog from original press release.
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Contact: Greg Lester
American Association for Cancer Research

The ANZAC Research Institute study was funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia and the New South Wales Government.

The mission of the American Association for Cancer Research is to prevent and cure cancer. Founded in 1907, AACR is the world’s oldest and largest professional organization dedicated to advancing cancer research. The membership includes nearly 26,000 basic, translational, and clinical researchers; health care professionals; and cancer survivors and advocates in the United States and more than 70 other countries.

AACR marshals the full spectrum of expertise from the cancer community to accelerate progress in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer through high-quality scientific and educational programs. It funds innovative, meritorious research grants. The AACR Annual Meeting attracts more than 17,000 participants who share the latest discoveries and developments in the field. Special Conferences throughout the year present novel data across a wide variety of topics in cancer research, treatment, and patient care.

AACR publishes five major peer-reviewed journals: Cancer Research; Clinical Cancer Research; Molecular Cancer Therapeutics; Molecular Cancer Research; and Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. Its most recent publication, CR, is a magazine for cancer survivors, patient advocates, their families, physicians, and scientists. It provides a forum for sharing essential, evidence-based information and perspectives on progress in cancer research, survivorship, and advocacy.

Study Finds A Diet of Red Meat, Starches and Sweets Increases Risk of Breast Cancer in Postmenopausal Women

A new study finds that the more “western” the diet — marked by red meat, starches and sweets — the greater the risk for breast cancer among postmenopausal Chinese women. According to researchers who conducted the analysis at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia, Harvard University, Shanghai Cancer Institute, and Vanderbilt University, the findings mark the first time a specific association between a western diet and breast cancer has been identified in Asian women.The study, published in the July issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, is the latest set of findings derived from the Shanghai Breast Cancer Study, conducted in the 1990s by Wei Zheng, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H, and colleagues at Vanderbilt University. The Fox Chase researchers identified dietary habits among women in the study based on their reported eating habits, classifying them as either “meat-sweet” or “vegetable-soy” eaters.

“The Shanghai data gave us a unique look at a population of Chinese women who were beginning to adopt more western-style eating habits,” said, Marilyn Tseng, Ph.D. associate member in the population science division at Fox Chase. “We found an association between a western-style diet and breast cancer was pronounced in postmenopausal women, especially heavier women with estrogen receptor-positive tumors.”

Breast cancers marked by the excessive production of estrogen receptors (ER+ breast cancers) form the majority of breast cancers and are often associated with obesity. According to Tseng, there seems to be a specific interaction between obesity and western cuisine among postmenopausal women that drives breast cancer, although the study did not offer a specific mechanism.

Tseng and her colleagues examined cases of women from the Shanghai Breast Cancer Study, 25 to 64 years of age, who were newly diagnosed with breast cancer from August 1996 to March 1998. Controls were selected from the Shanghai Resident Registry of permanent residents in urban Shanghai.

Through in-person interviews with the Shanghai study participants and residents of Shanghai, researchers established the existence of two primary dietary patterns – a “meat-sweet” diet and a “vegetable-soy” diet. The “meat-sweet” diet is characterized by various meats, primarily pork but also poultry, organ meats, beef and lamb, and shrimp, saltwater fish, and shellfish, as well as candy, dessert, bread, and milk. The “vegetable-soy” pattern is associated with various vegetables, soy-based products, and freshwater fish.

Of 1,602 breast cancer cases identified during the study period, in-person interviews were completed for 1,459 (91.1%). In-person interviews were completed for 1,556 (90.3%) of the 1,724 control group participants.

The “meat-sweet” pattern was significantly associated with increased risk of breast cancer among overweight postmenopausal women. Specifically, high intake of the “meat-sweet” pattern was associated with a greater than twofold increased risk of ER+ breast cancer among these women. The results showed no overall association of breast cancer risk with the “vegetable-soy” pattern.

“Our study suggests the possibility that the “meat-sweet” pattern interacts with obesity to increase breast cancer risk,” Tseng said. “Low consumption of a western dietary pattern plus successful weight control may protect against breast cancer in a traditionally low-risk Asian population that is poised to more broadly adopt foods characteristic of western societies.”

This research was funded through grants from the National Institutes of Health, the American Cancer Society, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Tseng’s co-authors include Xiaohui Cui from the Department of Epidemiology of the Harvard School of Public Health, Yu-Tang Gao from the Shanghai Cancer Institute, and Qi Dai, Xiao-Ou Shu, and Wei Zheng from the School of Medicine, and the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center at Vanderbilt University.
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The mission of the American Association for Cancer Research is to prevent and cure cancer. Founded in 1907, AACR is the world’s oldest and largest professional organization dedicated to advancing cancer research. The membership includes nearly 26,000 basic, translational, and clinical researchers; health care professionals; and cancer survivors and advocates in the United States and more than 70 other countries. AACR marshals the full spectrum of expertise from the cancer community to accelerate progress in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer through high-quality scientific and educational programs. It funds innovative, meritorious research grants. The AACR Annual Meeting attracts more than 17,000 participants who share the latest discoveries and developments in the field. Special Conferences throughout the year present novel data across a wide variety of topics in cancer research, treatment, and patient care. AACR publishes five major peer-reviewed journals: Cancer Research; Clinical Cancer Research; Molecular Cancer Therapeutics; Molecular Cancer Research; and Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. Its most recent publication, CR, is a magazine for cancer survivors, patient advocates, their families, physicians, and scientists. It provides a forum for sharing essential, evidence-based information and perspectives on progress in cancer research, survivorship, and advocacy.

Contact: Greg Lester
lester@aacr.org

http://www.aacr.org

Red meat linked to breast cancer

Eating red meat increases a woman’s chance of developing breast cancer, according to new research from the University of Leeds.

The findings are most striking for post-menopausal women – those with the highest intake of red meat, the equivalent to one portion a day (more than 57 grams) – run a 56 per cent greater risk of breast cancer than those who eat none. Women who eat the most processed meat, such as bacon, sausages, ham or pies, run a 64 per cent greater risk of breast cancer than those who eat none.

Researchers at the University’s Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics have been tracking the eating habits and health of more than 35,000 women for the past seven years, and their latest findings are published in the British Journal of Cancer. Earlier findings, widely reported in January, showed that pre-menopausal women who have the greatest intake of fibre have cut their risk of breast cancer in half.

Read full text of the report from the British Journal of Cancer

For more information:

LEEDS UNIVERSITY
Leeds
LS2 9JT
http://www.leeds.ac.uk