Preliminary analysis of nutritional factors in breast cancer

Abstract

Epidemiological and experimental data indicate that cancer could be linked to nutritional factors. Both nutrition and cancer are complex subjects, therefore to investigate the link between cancer and nutrition is not an easy task. It is generally believed that cancer needs a long time to develop. On the other hand, and accurate dietary records over a long period of time is difficult to obtain. The aim of this study is to find a method which is able to give a better estimate in elucidating a cancer-diet relationship in patients with breast cancer, using a modified food frequency questionaires for specific time periods. A total of twenty tiplets (one case, two matched controls) nutritional forms were done during a pilot case-control study on breast cancer in Cipto Mangunkumo Hospital, Jakarta. Using Food Frequency Amount (FFA) questionaire of 4 different periods: before and after marriage, five and ten years before disease occurence, a total of 98 food items were covered. Identical responses to FFA between before and after marriage were found only among 10 food items (10.2%), while 89.8% figure was obtained between the five and ten year periods. No responses to 19 food items by all 60 respondents but quite good response to seven different cooking preferences questionaires. It is concluded that time of marriage can be used as milestone in interviewing dietary pattern. Nineteen food items would be dropped out from the questionaire. The implementation of the definitive study is now in progress.