Background: Our purpose was to assess the association between dietary total antioxidant capacity (DTAC), as assessed by oxygen radical absorbance capacity and breast cancer (BrCa) incidence among Iranian women.
Methods: This hospital-based case-control study included 150 newly diagnosed BrCa cases and 150 age-matched apparently healthy women from the Cancer Research Center, Imam Khomeini hospital, Iran. Socio-demographic data and anthropometric measures were determined. Dietary intake was assessed using a 147-item validated food frequency questionnaire. Energy-adjusted DTAC was calculated with the USDA database.
Results: After adjusting for potential confounders, multivariable logistic regression showed that the incidence of BrCa was not significantly different between highest tertile of DTAC and the lowest tertile (P trend = 0.91). Moreover, on the basis of menopausal status, no significant association between DTAC and BrCa risk among pre-menopausal (P trend = 0.62) and post-menopausal women (P trend = 0.77) was detected.
Conclusion: We did not observe any significant association of DTAC with BrCa incidence among Iranian women. Continued and expanded research on DTAC, evaluated by different methods and BrCa risk is needed to build the foundation for future progress in evidence-based public health efforts.
Keywords: Antioxidant; Breast cancer; Cancer; Dietary total antioxidant capacity.