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Associations between serum concentration of flavonoids and breast cancer risk among Chinese women

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Abstract

Purpose

In vitro and in vivo studies suggested that flavonols, flavones, flavanones and flavan-3-ols have preventive effects on breast carcinogenesis. Epidemiological evidence about the associations between these flavonoid biomarkers and breast cancer risk is limited. This study aimed to investigate the association between serum concentration of these flavonoids and breast cancer risk among Chinese women.

Methods

This hospital-based case–control study recruited 792 breast cancer cases and 813 age frequency-matched (5-year interval) controls who provided eligible blood samples in Guangdong Province, China. Ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry was used to measure flavonoids. Unconditional logistic regression was used to estimate the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence internal (CI).

Results

Higher concentrations of serum flavonols, isorhamnetin, kaempferol, flavanones and naringenin were significantly associated with lower breast cancer risk, with adjusted ORs (95% CIs) for the highest versus the lowest group of 0.66 (0.49–0.89) for flavonols, 0.52 (0.38–0.70) for isorhamnetin, 0.60 (0.45–0.80) for kaempferol, 0.65 (0.49–0.87) for flavanones and 0.45 (0.34–0.60) for naringenin, respectively. Significant positive associations were observed between serum flavan-3-ols, epigallocatechin, epigallocatechin-3-gallate and breast cancer risk. No significant associations were observed for serum quercetin, flavones, apigenin, luteolin, hesperetin, catechin, epicatechin and epicatechin-3-gallate with overall breast cancer risk.

Conclusions

This study suggested that serum flavonols and flavanones were inversely associated with breast cancer risk and serum flavan-3-ols were positively associated with breast cancer risk. Serum flavones were not associated with overall breast cancer risk. These findings warrant further confirmation in prospective studies.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the contribution of the study participants; without them the study would not have been possible. We also appreciated Miss Alinuer Abulimiti and Miss Chu-Yi Huang for participating in the laboratory measurement.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81102188). The funders had no role in the design of the study, analysis of the data, or writing of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510080, People’s Republic of China

    Xiao-Li Feng, Luo-Shi-Yuan Zuo, Xin Zhang, Kai-Yan Liu, Lei Li & Cai-Xia Zhang

  2. Department of Laboratory Medicine, Sun Yat-sen University First Affiliated Hospital, Guangzhou, 510080, People’s Republic of China

    Xiao-Xia Zhan

  3. Department of Thyroid and Breast Surgery, Sun Yat-sen University First Affiliated Hospital, Guangzhou, 510080, People’s Republic of China

    Xiong-Fei Mo

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  1. Xiao-Li Feng
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Correspondence to Cai-Xia Zhang.

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Feng, XL., Zhan, XX., Zuo, LSY. et al. Associations between serum concentration of flavonoids and breast cancer risk among Chinese women. Eur J Nutr 60, 1347–1362 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-020-02331-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-020-02331-z

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