Association between serum lipids and breast cancer risk in premenopausal women: systematic review and meta-analysis

OBJECTIVE: Associations between serum lipids and their individual components with premenopausal breast cancer risk are unclear. This meta-analysis summarized the literature on serum lipids and premenopausal breast cancer risk to elucidate their relationship. METHODS: Eligible studies were identified by searching the PubMed, Embase, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, and Wanfang databases until 31 December 2020. Standardized mean difference (SMD) scores with 95% confidence intervals (95%CIs) were used to assess the impact of serum lipids on premenopausal breast cancer risk. The I(2) statistic was calculated to measure the percentage of heterogeneity, and Egger’s test was performed to measure publication bias. RESULTS: Thirteen studies were included. The SMD scores of triglycerides (TG) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) were 12.90 (95%CI: 7.19–18.61) and 31.43 (95%CI: 8.72–54.15), respectively. The SMD scores of total cholesterol (TC) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) were not significantly different between the groups. The included studies were highly heterogeneous. There were no publication biases found in TC, LDL-C, or HDL-C analyses, whereas publication bias was present in the TG analysis. CONCLUSIONS: TG and LDL-C were higher in premenopausal breast cancer patients than in women without breast cancer. However, no significant differences were found in TC or HDL-C levels.