The dietary fat--breast cancer hypothesis is alive
A. Schatzkin, P. Greenwald, D. P. Byar and C. K. Clifford
Division of Cancer Prevention and Control, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD 20892.
Data from animal experiments and human correlation studies strongly support
the dietary fat-breast cancer hypothesis. Moreover, a causal relation
between dietary fat and breast malignancy is biologically plausible.
Negative findings from recent analytic epidemiologic studies of dietary fat
and breast cancer, however, have fueled the notion that the hypothesis is
no longer viable. We argue that only limited conclusions should be drawn
from epidemiologic studies to date because of the narrow range of dietary
fat intake among subjects and the substantial measurement error in dietary
assessment. Although many doubts remain about the dietary fat--breast
cancer hypothesis, the question is of such importance that intensive
efforts at designing better studies of the hypothesis are urgently needed.
Such studies might include (1) laboratory investigations in humans that
examine possible mechanisms for the effects of fat, (2) large, prospective
epidemiologic studies, and (3) randomized, controlled diet trials.
