Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2013 May;52(5 Suppl):S36-40.
doi: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2013.01.007.

Preadolescent and adolescent risk factors for benign breast disease

Affiliations
Review

Preadolescent and adolescent risk factors for benign breast disease

A Lindsay Frazier et al. J Adolesc Health. 2013 May.

Abstract

Purpose: It is well established that exposures during childhood and adolescence affect breast cancer risk much later in life. Recently, studies have begun to evaluate whether early life exposures might also impact the risk of developing benign breast disease (BBD). A diagnosis of proliferative BBD independent of other breast cancer risk factors also increases the subsequent risk of breast cancer; therefore, understanding how to decrease the incidence of BBD may have important implications for primary breast cancer prevention.

Methods: We reviewed several studies from prospective cohort studies that have investigated the relationship between risk factors during childhood and adolescence, such as anthropometric and reproductive characteristics as well as diet and other behaviors, and subsequent risk of BBD.

Results: Higher intake of vegetable oils, nuts, vitamin E, and fiber and lower consumption of animal fat, red meat, and alcohol are associated with reduced risk of BBD. Childhood weight and adolescent body mass index are inversely associated with BBD risk, whereas a greater peak height velocity during adolescence is associated with a higher risk of BBD. There was no association between age of menarche and risk of BBD.

Conclusion: Early life exposures and behaviors appear to impact BBD risk. The current body of evidence further supports the importance of a life-course approach to breast cancer prevention.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflict of interest to disclose.

Similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. American Cancer Society Breast Cancer Key Statistics. 2010 Available from: www.cancer.org/Cancer/BreastCancer/DetailedGuide/breast-cancer-key-stati....
    1. Berkey CS, Frazier AL, Gardner JD, Colditz GA. Adolescence and breast carcinoma risk. Cancer. 1999;85(11):2400–2409. Epub 1999/06/05. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1097-0142(19990601)85:11<2400::AID-CNCR15>3.0.CO;2-O [pii]. PubMed PMID: 10357411. - PubMed
    1. Ahlgren M, Melbye M, Wohlfahrt J, Sorensen TI. Growth patterns and the risk of breast cancer in women. N Engl J Med. 2004;351(16):1619–26. Epub 2004/10/16. doi: 351/16/1619 [pii] 10.1056/NEJMoa040576. PubMed PMID: 15483280. - PubMed
    1. Colditz GA, Frazier AL. Models of breast cancer show that risk is set by events of early life: prevention efforts must shift focus. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 1995;4(5):567–571. Epub 1995/07/01. PubMed PMID: 7549816. - PubMed
    1. Baer HJ, Tworoger SS, Hankinson SE, Willett WC. Body fatness at young ages and risk of breast cancer throughout life. Am J Epidemiol. 2010;171(11):1183–1194. Epub 2010/05/13. doi: kwq045 [pii] 10.1093/aje/kwq045. PubMed PMID: 20460303; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC2915489. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types