Adherence to the Vegetable-Fruit-Soy Dietary Pattern, a Reference From Mediterranean Diet, Protects Against Postmenopausal Breast Cancer Among Chinese Women

BACKGROUND: The diet-center hypothesis has gained much support from the apparent protective effect of the Mediterranean diet on breast cancer. However, the evidence of the association between Mediterranean diet adherence and breast cancer molecular subtypes remains small, especially in non-Mediterranean populations. METHODS: The subjects from the Chinese Wuxi Exposure and Breast Cancer Study, a population-based case-control study, included 818 patients and 935 healthy controls. A validated food frequency questionnaire used for diet assessment and a modified version of the alternate Mediterranean Diet Score, which is called the alternate Chinese Diet Score, was developed to assess adherence to a migrated Chinese version of the Mediterranean diet, which we called the vegetable-fruit-soy dietary pattern. Soy foods, rapeseed oil, and coarse cereals replaced legumes, olive oil, and whole grains reflecting the cuisine of the region. We examined the association between the vegetable-fruit-soy diet adherence and breast cancer risk, stratified by menopause status (pre- or postmenopausal) and receptor status [estrogen-receptor (ER), progesterone-receptor (PR) status, and human epidermal growth factor 2 (HER2)] oncogene expression, followed by five specific combinations (ER+, ER–, ER+/PR+,ER–/PR–, and ER–/PR–/HER2–). RESULTS: The results suggest that the vegetable-fruit-soy dietary pattern was inversely associated with postmenopausal breast cancer risk [4th vs. 1st quartile, odds ratio (OR) = 0.57, 95%CI = 0.41, 0.80; P trend < 0.001] and that the inverse association was somewhat stronger to detect among ER- subtypes (OR = 0.63; 95%CI = 0.37, 0.94; P trend = 0.003) and ER–/PR–subtypes (OR = 0.64; 95%CI = 0.41, 0.93; P trend = 0.012). We did not observe any significant association between the vegetable-fruit-soy diet characteristics and ER+ subtype, as well as between PR+ and ER+/PR+ subtypes. CONCLUSION: The favorable influence from the Mediterranean diet may also apply to Chinese women. The vegetable-fruit-soy dietary pattern may reduce the risk of postmenopausal breast cancer, particularly among ER- subtype, and ER–/PR–subtype.