Informed

First WCRF/AICR update on breast cancer

The Continuous Update Project is a WCRF/AICR initiative in collaboration with Imperial College London that aims to keep the evidence from the Second Expert Report [1] updated. The first report from the project on breast cancer added 81 papers published between 2006 and 2007 to the 873 studies analysed for the Second Expert Report. The updated breast cancer report confirms the Panel’s conclusions that, for breast cancer at any age, drinking alcohol increases the risk and breastfeeding decreases the risk.

For postmenopausal breast cancer, being overweight or obese increases the risk and being physically active decreases the risk. The team at Imperial College found 11 new studies on body mass index (BMI) and postmenopausal breast cancer. The analysis of these new studies, as well as those included in the Second Expert report, showed breast cancer risk increased by five per cent per 2kg/m2 increase in BMI. This means that an obese woman with a BMI of 30 has a 20 per cent higher risk of developing breast cancer than a woman with a healthy weight BMI of 22.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in the UK with about 45,000 women being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006. Figures presented in the WCRF/AICR Policy Report [2] estimate that about 42 per cent of breast cancer cases in the UK could be prevented if women were a healthy body weight, drank less alcohol and were more physically active.

Work is also underway to keep the literature on prostate and bowel cancers up to date and further reports on these cancers can be expected.

References

1. WCRF/AICR. Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity, and the Prevention of Cancer: a Global Perspective. Washington DC: AICR, 2007
2. WCRF/AICR. Policy and Action for Cancer Prevention. Food, Nutrition, and Physical Activity: a Global Perspective. Washington DC: AICR, 2009