White meat intake and the risk of breast cancer:: a case-control study in Montevideo, Uruguay

A case-control study was conducted during 1999-2001, in order to know better the associations of white meat intake and the risk of breast cancer among Uruguayan women. I 11 cases of breast cancer and 222 frequency-matched healthy women with a normal mammography as controls were interviewed with a specific questionnaire, which included a detailed 120-item food frequency section, and sociodemographic, reproductive, familial, medical and lifestyle variables. After controlling for selected variables including potential confounders, a multivariate analysis found increased risks of breast cancer for high intakes of fried fish and chicken with skin, whereas skinless chicken, not fried fish and total white meat intake were inversely associated. Results suggest that there are opposite associations of white meat types and the risk of breast cancer, also according to the cooking method used. Separated analyses for each one of them could be performed in the future, in order to uncover its different associations. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.