Association strongest for women with ER-negative/PR-negative tumors
WEDNESDAY, March 8, 2017 (HealthDay News) — Breast cancer survivors who consume more soy may have a lower risk of all-cause mortality over a 10-year period, according to a study published online March 6 in Cancer.
All of the 6,235 participants in the new study were enrolled in the Breast Cancer Family Registry, which began in 1995. At the study’s start, the women averaged 52 years of age. The research team tracked data on all the women’s diets. During a median follow-up of 113 months, 1,224 of the participants died.
The researchers found an association between higher dietary isoflavone intake and increased survival after breast cancer diagnosis. The benefit was strongest for women with ER-negative/PR-negative tumors: These women had a 51 percent reduced risk of dying from any cause during the follow-up. Women who had never taken hormone therapy as a component of their treatment for breast cancer also appeared to gain a substantial benefit from high soy intake: a 32 percent reduced risk of death during the follow-up period.
“I think now we can say women with breast cancer should not worry about going out to eat edamame, miso soup, tofu, and other soy products, and [to] drink soy milk,” Omer Kucuk, M.D., a professor of medical oncology and director of the Integrative Medicine Center at Emory University’s Winship Cancer Institute in Atlanta, and author of an editorial accompanying the study, told HealthDay.
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