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WHEL: Increased starch intake may be linked to breast cancer recurrence

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San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium

Among women diagnosed with breast cancer within the previous 4 years, the risk for recurrence was highest in those who increased their intake of carbohydrates compared with those whose intake declined, according to a newly released subset analysis of the Women’s Healthy Eating and Living, or WHEL, Dietary Intervention Trial.

Women who increased their dietary starch the most during 1 year had a 14.2% rate of additional cancers compared with 9.7% for women who decreased their starch intake the most during 1 year.

WHEL is a plant-based intervention trial that enrolled 3,088 survivors of breast cancer. Jennifer A. Emond, a public health doctoral student at the University of California, San Diego, presented the results during the 2011 CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.

“The results show that it’s not just overall carbohydrates, but particularly starch,” Emond said in a press release. “Women who increased their starch intake over 1 year were at a much likelier risk for recurring.”

Increases in starch intake accounted for 48% of the change in carbohydrate consumption.

Researchers reviewed data for 2,651 women. They extracted carbohydrate intake data from multiple 24-hour dietary recalls at baseline and 1 year, and they were compared by recurrence status.

Carbohydrate intake at baseline was 233 g/day. Edmond and colleagues found that women who experienced recurrence had a daily increased intake of 2.3 g compared with a daily decrease of 2.7 g for women who did not recur (P=.188).

Starch intake was similar at baseline between women who had recurrence and those who did not. At 1 year, mean daily starch intake was –4.1 g among women who recurred vs. –8.7 g among women who did not recur (P=.015). An increase in daily starch intake of 5 g was associated with a 3% increased risk for recurrence (HR=1.03; 95% CI, 1.01-1.06). However, the increased risk was limited to women diagnosed with low-grade tumors.

Earn CME this spring at the HemOnc Today Breast Cancer Review & Perspective meeting to be held March 23-24, 2012 at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront. See details at HemOncTodayBreastCancer.com.

For more information:

• Emond JE. #P3-09-01. Presented at: the 2011 CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; Dec. 6-10, 2011; San Antonio.

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