Early soy consumption linked with reduced breast cancer risk

An article published in the American Association for Cancer Research journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention reported that Asian-American women who consumed high amounts of soy during childhood had a lesser risk of developing breast cancer compared with women who consumed less soy. Although women living in Asia have a lower risk of breast cancer than those residing in the United States, breast cancer risk increases among the descendents of those who migrate to the U.S., leading researchers to believe that the Western diet may be involved.

Larissa Korde, MD, MPH of the National Cancer Institute and her colleagues analyzed data from 597 breast cancer patients and 966 healthy women of Chinese, Japanese or Filipino descent who resided in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles and Hawaii. For participants whose reported childhood intake of soy was among the highest one-third of subjects there was a 58 percent lower risk of breast cancer compared with those whose intake was in the lowest third. The reduction was similar for all three ethnicities and for those with and without a family history of breast cancer. High intake during adolescent or adult years was associated with a 20 to 25 percent lower risk of the disease. Continue Reading