Abstract
Overweight and obesity in childhood and adolescence are associated with reduced breast cancer risk, independent of adult body mass index (BMI). These associations may be mediated through breast density. Methods: We prospectively examined associations of early life body fatness with adult breast density measured by MRI in 182 women in the Dietary Intervention Study in Children (DISC) who were ages 25-29 at follow-up. Height, weight, and other factors were measured at baseline (ages 8-10) and annual clinic visits through adolescence. We used linear mixed-effects models to quantify associations of percent breast density and dense and non-dense breast volume at ages 25-29 with quartiles of age-specific youth body mass index (BMI) Z-scores, adjusting for clinic, treatment group, current adult BMI, and other well-established risk factors for breast cancer and predictors of breast density. Results: We observed inverse associations between age-specific BMI Z-scores at all youth clinic visits and percent breast density, adjusting for current adult BMI and other covariates (all p values <0.01). Women whose baseline BMI Z-scores (at ages 8-10 years) were in the top quartile had significantly lower adult breast density, after adjusting for current adult BMI and other covariates [least squares mean (LSM): 23.4 %; 95 % confidence interval (CI): 18.0 %, 28.8 %] compared to those in the bottom quartile (LSM: 31.8 %; 95 % CI: 25.2 %, 38.4 %) (p trend <0.01). Significant inverse associations were also observed for absolute dense breast volume (all p values <0.01), whereas there were no clear associations with non-dense breast volume. Conclusions: These results support the hypothesis that body fatness during childhood and adolescence may play an important role in premenopausal breast density, independent of current BMI, and further suggest direct or indirect influences on absolute dense breast volume.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Article number | 95 |
| Journal | Breast Cancer Research |
| Volume | 17 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jul 16 2015 |
Funding
This work was supported by the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR Grant Application 209506) and the National Institutes of Health (R01CA104670, R01CA116182). KAB was supported by the Nutritional Epidemiology of Cancer Education and Career Development Program (R25CA098566) and by the Simeon J. Fortin Charitable Foundation, Bank of America, N.A., Co-Trustee. HJB was supported by a Mentored Research Scientist Career Development Award from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (K01HS019789). We thank the institutional review boards at Maryland Medical Research Institute, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA and the following six clinical centers: Children’s Hospital, New Orleans, LA; Johns Hopkins University Hospital, Baltimore, MD; Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, Portland, OR; University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Newark, NJ; Northwestern University Medical School, Chicago, IL; and University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics, Iowa City, IA. We are grateful to all participants in the DISC06 study and collaborators for their invaluable contributions.
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Oncology
- Cancer Research
