Dietary Fat Consumption And Breast Cancer: A Review Of The Literature

Abstract

Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer diagnosed among women. The literature suggests that increased total fat consumption may be associated with increased risk of breast cancer, although evaluation of specific types of fat may display contradicting results. The purpose of this review is to evaluate the association between total fat intake and its subtypes on risk, survival, and recurrence of breast cancer. Specific types of fat included in this review are saturated fat, polyunsaturated fat, and monounsaturated fat. Lastly, this review aims to identify the impact of fat and its subtypes on biomarkers that may be responsible for its effects, as well as suggest gaps in the current research and recommend areas of study that should be explored in the future. Overall this review found that increased consumption of saturated fat, animal fat and omega-6 polyunsaturated fat were positively associated with risk of breast cancer while omega-3 polyunsaturated fat was protective. Results did not show clear associations between monounsaturated fat and BC, although showed a clear inverse association for consumption of olive oil. Overall, consumption of fat and its subtypes may influence breast cancer risk, survival and recurrence although differential effects may be elicited by different fatty acids.