RESEARCH ARTICLE


Cardiometabolic Factors and Breast Cancer: A Case-Control Study in Women



Niki Mourouti1, Christos Papavagelis1, Meropi D. Kontogianni1, Petrini Plytzanopoulou2, Tonia Vassilakou2, Nikolaos Malamos3, Athena Linos4, Demosthenes B. Panagiotakos1, *
1 Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, Harokopio University, Athens, Greece
2 Department of Nutrition and Biochemistry, National School of Public Health, Athens, Greece
3 Pathology-Oncology Department, General Hospital "Elena Venizelos", Athens, Greece
4 Department of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Medical Statistics, School of Medicine, University of Athens, Athens, Greece


© 2013 Mourouti et al.

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the 46 Paleon Polemiston St., 16674, Glyfada, Greece; Tel: +30 210 9603116; Fax: +30 210 9600719; E-mail: d.b.panagiotakos@usa.net


Abstract

Background:

Previous studies have suggested that individual cardiometabolic factors may be associated with an increased risk of breast cancer.

Objective:

To evaluate the association between individual cardiometabolic factors with breast cancer development.

Design:

A case – control study. Two-hundred-and-fifty consecutive, newly diagnosed breast cancer female patients (56±12 years) and 250, one-to-one age-matched with the patients, healthy volunteers (controls), were studied. A standardized, validated questionnaire assessing various socio-demographic, clinical, lifestyle and dietary characteristics, was applied through face-to-face interviews. Adherence to the Mediterranean diet was evaluated using the 11-components MedDietScore (theoretical range 0-55). A detailed medical history regarding the common co-morbidities (i.e., diabetes, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia) and their treatment was also recorded, while women were also categorized using the Body Mass Index (BMI) as an indicator of obesity.

Results:

Obesity (i.e., BMI>30 kg/m2) was positively associated with the likelihood of having breast cancer.

Conclusions:

With the exception of obesity, none of the other tested cardiometabolic risk factors seemed to be a predisposing factor for breast cancer development.

Keywords: Cardiometabolic factors, diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, hypertension, obesity.