Dietary Total Antioxidant Capacity and Odds of Breast Cancer: A Case-Control Study

Abstract

Breast cancer (BC) is the most frequently diagnosed female cancer worldwide. It has been shown that oxidative stress can contribute to cancer development. Therefore, we investigated the association between dietary total antioxidant capacity (TAC) and breast cancer risk in a case-control study. This study was conducted on 136 newly diagnosed breast cancer patients and 272 hospitalized controls in Tehran, Iran. Participant habitual diet was obtained using a 168-item validated food frequency questionnaire. Dietary TAC scores were computed using two different methods: the dietary ferric reducing antioxidant potential (FRAP) method and oxygen radical scavenging capacity (ORAC). The association between dietary TAC and breast cancer risk was estimated by logistic regression. The score of DTAC calculated by ORAC method was associated with lower odds of BC, especially among premenopausal women. However, this association was not significant after controlling potential confounders (ORAC: OR Q4–Q1 = 1.01, 95% CI = 0.42–2.44, p-trend = 0.96). Estimation of DTAC by FRAP method was not associated with the risk of BC (FRAP: OR Q4–Q1 = 1.04, 95% CI = 0.53–2.05, p-trend = 0.8). There were no association detected based on menopausal status. In this study, dietary TAC was not significantly related to the odds of breast cancer.

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to all field investigators, staff, and participants of the present study. This study has been performed as a thesis toward a master’s degree in Nutritional Sciences. It was supported by a grant from the National Nutrition and Food Technology Research Institute, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. Barbora de Courten is supported by a Royal Australasian College of Physicians Fellows Career Development Fellowship.

Authors’ Contributions

Saba Jalali conceived and developed conception, collected, analyzed, and interpreted data, drafted and finalize the manuscript. Zeinab Heidari participated in the data collection and reviewed the manuscript. Barbora de Courten co-edited English editing of the manuscript. She also provided critical feedback for revising the manuscript. The authors read and approved the final version. Bahram Rashidkhani contributed to conception and design, revised the manuscript critically for important intellectual content, and finalized the manuscript.

Disclosure Statement

The authors report no conflict of interest.

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.