Patients with endometrial cancer (EC) tend to have lower consumption of dairy products compared to individuals without, according to findings recently published in Scientific Reports.
“Higher intake of total dairy, low-fat dairy, and high-fat dairy was significantly associated with a lower risk of EC in fully adjusted models,” the authors reported. “No significant association was found between butter consumption and EC risk.”
The relationship between EC risk and dairy product consumption is unclear, with various studies showing inconsistent results. Research is ongoing to determine exactly how diet may influence the development of EC and other forms of cancer.
The study included 136 patients with EC and 272 controls from hospitals in Iran. All participants were asked about their dietary intake via a 168-item questionnaire. Cases had a lower average age at first period and a higher average age at first pregnancy.
Read more about EC causes and risk factors
While patients with EC had an average dairy intake of 2.82 servings per day, the controls had an intake of 2.97 servings per day. In addition to dairy, the controls consumed more vegetables, white meat and legumes than the cases.
Participants were then divided into three groups based on their level of dairy intake, with the first group having the lowest consumption.
In terms of total dairy intake, patients in the second group had 86% lower odds of EC than those in the first after adjusting for a number of confounding variables. Individuals in the third group had 69% lower odds of EC than those in the first group. Similar trends were observed for high-fat and low-fat dairy.
When looking only at postmenopausal women, the researchers again found that total, high-fat and low-fat dairy intake were associated with lower odds of EC.
These results, though suggestive of a connection between dairy intake and EC risk, should not be interpreted as a definitive causal link, the authors caution. “Future population-based studies are needed to confirm these associations,” they emphasized.
