Nutrition, body size, and breast cancer

Human epidemiologic and animal experimental evidence has suggested that excess intake of macronutrients (total calories, protein, fat) and deficient intake of micronutrients (β carotene, selenium) may be associated with increased incidence and decreased survival of breast cancer in women. The overall pattern of evidence, including migrant studies, has further suggested that dietary patterns in early life may be important to the long‐term risk of breast cancer. Since cancer is currently thought to be a multistage process with a long latent period, early nutritional patterns which influence childhood growth and development may also influence the adult risk of cancer. Nutrition‐mediated factors which may be associated with breast cancer risk include both anthropometric and reproductive variables. Enduring indicators of growth which can be measured in adults (e.g., stature, sitting height, frame size, lean body mass) may be reflective of early nutritional patterns which place women at increased risk of breast cancer. Anthropometric variables which may be related to adult nutritional patterns (e.g., absolute and relative fatness) are also associated with the risk of cancer in defined groups of women. Anthropometry may aid in the study of the relationship between breast cancer and the timing of nutritional excess, growth, menarche, and other risk factors. Other nutrition‐related variables which may be associated with breast cancer include breast secretory activity, bowel function, and lactose tolerance. Recognition of the relationships among nutrition, body size, and breast cancer raises a new context for consideration of the adaptiveness of body size in human populations.