Low Plasma Coenzyme Q10 Levels and Breast Cancer Risk in Chinese Women

Background: Low circulating levels of coenzyme Q(10) (CoQ(10)) have been associated with increased cancer incidence and poor prognosis for a number of cancer types, while a recent prospective study observed a positive association for CoQ(10) with breast cancer risk. Methods: We prospectively examined the association of plasma CoQ(10) with breast cancer risk in a nested case-control study of Chinese women within the Shanghai Women's Health Study (SWHS). Prediagnostic plasma samples were obtained from 340 cases and 653 age-matched controls and analyzed for total CoQ(10). Results: A borderline significant inverse association for breast cancer incidence with plasma CoQ(10) level was observed by a conditional logistic regression model adjusted for age and age at first live birth, which became significant after elimination of cases diagnosed within 1 year of blood draw (P-trend = 0.03). This association was independent of menopausal status. Plasma CoQ(10) levels were also observed to be significantly associated with circulating gamma-tocopherol (r = 0.50; P < 0.0001) and alpha-tocopherol (r = 0.38; P < 0.0001) levels. Conclusions: Circulating levels of CoQ(10) were generally low in this population and the observed association with breast cancer risk may be limited to those women with exceptionally low values. Impact: This study reports an inverse relationship between circulating CoQ(10) and breast cancer risk, while the only other prospective study of CoQ(10) and breast cancer to date found a positive association. Lower levels of CoQ(10) in the SWHS population suggest that the 2 studies may not be contradictory and indicate a possible nonlinear (U-shaped) association of CoQ(10) with risk. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 20(6); 1124-30. (C)2011 AACR.