Association of Mediterranean diet with survival after breast cancer diagnosis in women from nine European countries: results from the EPIC cohort study

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  • Carlota Castro-Espin
  • Catalina Bonet
  • Marta Crous-Bou
  • Núria Nadal-Zaragoza
  • Lene Mellemkjær
  • Mariem Hajji-Louati
  • Thérèse Truong
  • Verena Katzke
  • Charlotte Le Cornet
  • Matthias B. Schulze
  • Franziska Jannasch
  • Giovanna Masala
  • Sabina Sieri
  • Salvatore Panico
  • Chiara Di Girolamo
  • Guri Skeie
  • Kristin Benjaminsen Borch
  • Karina Standahl Olsen
  • Maria Jose Sánchez
  • Pilar Amiano
  • María Dolores Chirlaque
  • Marcela Guevara
  • Malin Sund
  • Stina Bodén
  • Marc J. Gunter
  • Esther M. Gonzalez-Gil
  • Elisabete Weiderpass
  • Inmaculada Aguilera-Buenosvinos
  • Kostas K. Tsilidis
  • Alicia K. Heath
  • Dagfinn Aune
  • Laure Dossus
  • Antonio Agudo
Background
The Mediterranean diet has been associated with lower risk of breast cancer (BC) but evidence from prospective studies on the role of Mediterranean diet on BC survival remains sparse and conflicting. We aimed to investigate whether adherence to Mediterranean diet prior to diagnosis is associated with overall and BC-specific mortality.

Methods
A total of 13,270 incident breast cancer cases were identified from an initial sample of 318,686 women in 9 countries from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study. Adherence to Mediterranean diet was estimated through the adapted relative Mediterranean diet (arMED), a 16-point score that includes 8 key components of the Mediterranean diet and excludes alcohol. The degree of adherence to arMED was classified as low (score 0–5), medium (score 6–8), and high (score 9–16). Multivariable Cox proportional hazards models were used to analyze the association between the arMED score and overall mortality, and Fine-Gray competing risks models were applied for BC-specific mortality.

Results
After a mean follow-up of 8.6 years from diagnosis, 2340 women died, including 1475 from breast cancer. Among all BC survivors, low compared to medium adherence to arMED score was associated with a 13% higher risk of all-cause mortality (HR 1.13, 95%CI 1.01–1.26). High compared to medium adherence to arMED showed a non-statistically significant association (HR 0.94; 95% CI 0.84–1.05). With no statistically significant departures from linearity, on a continuous scale, a 3-unit increase in the arMED score was associated with an 8% reduced risk of overall mortality (HR3-unit 0.92, 95% CI: 0.87–0.97). This result sustained when restricted to postmenopausal women and was stronger among metastatic BC cases (HR3-unit 0.81, 95% CI: 0.72–0.91).

Conclusions
Consuming a Mediterranean diet before BC diagnosis may improve long-term prognosis, particularly after menopause and in cases of metastatic breast cancer. Well-designed dietary interventions are needed to confirm these findings and define specific dietary recommendations.
OriginalsprogEngelsk
Artikelnummer225
TidsskriftBMC Medicine
Vol/bind21
Udgave nummer1
Antal sider11
ISSN1741-7015
DOI
StatusUdgivet - 2023

Bibliografisk note

Funding Information:
We thank CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya for institutional support. We also thank the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Bilthoven, the Netherlands, for their contribution and on-going support to the EPIC Study. The authors thank all EPIC participants and staff for their outstanding contribution to the study. Where authors are identified as personnel of the International Agency for Research on Cancer / World Health Organization, the authors alone are responsible for the views expressed in this article and they do not necessarily represent the decisions, policy, or views of the International Agency for Research on Cancer / World Health Organization.

Funding Information:
Carlota Castro-Espin is funded by Instituto de Salud Carlos III through the Grant FI19/00197 (co-funded by the European Social Fund. ESF investing in your future). This study is funded by the AECC Scientific Foundation (Project PRYES211366AGUD). The coordination of EPIC is financially supported by International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and by the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, which has additional infrastructure support provided by the NIHR Imperial Biomedical Research Centre (BRC). The national cohorts are supported by: Danish Cancer Society (Denmark); Ligue Contre le Cancer, Institut Gustave Roussy, Mutuelle Générale de l’Education Nationale, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) (France); German Cancer Aid, German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ), German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbruecke (DIfE), Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) (Germany); Associazione Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro-AIRC-Italy, Compagnia di SanPaolo and National Research Council (Italy); Dutch Ministry of Public Health, Welfare and Sports (VWS), Netherlands Cancer Registry (NKR), LK Research Funds, Dutch Prevention Funds, Dutch ZON (Zorg Onderzoek Nederland), World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF), Statistics Netherlands (The Netherlands); Health Research Fund (FIS)—Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), Regional Governments of Andalucía, Asturias, Basque Country, Murcia and Navarra, and the Catalan Institute of Oncology—ICO (Spain); Swedish Cancer Society, Swedish Research Council and County Councils of Skåne and Västerbotten (Sweden); Cancer Research UK (14136 to EPIC-Norfolk; C8221/A29017 to EPIC-Oxford), Medical Research Council (1000143 to EPIC-Norfolk; MR/M012190/1 to EPIC-Oxford) (United Kingdom). The funders of this study had no role in the decisions about the analysis or interpretation of the data, or preparation, review or approval of the manuscript.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s).

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