The interaction of diet, alcohol, genetic predisposition, and the risk of breast cancer: a cohort study from the UK Biobank

Background Dietary factors have consistently been associated with breast cancer risk. However, there is limited evidence regarding their associations in women with different genetic susceptibility to breast cancer, and their interaction with alcohol consumption is also not well understood.Methods We analyzed data from 261,853 female participants in the UK Biobank. Multivariable adjusted Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for associations between dietary factors and breast cancer risk. Additionally, we assessed the interaction of dietary factors with alcohol consumption and polygenic risk score (PRS) for breast cancer.Results A moderately higher risk of breast cancer was associated with the consumption of processed meat (HR = 1.10, 95% CI 1.03, 1.18, p-trend = 0.016). Higher intake of raw vegetables and fresh fruits, and adherence to a healthy dietary pattern were inversely associated with breast cancer risk [HR (95% CI):0.93 (0.88-0.99), 0.87 (0.81, 0.93) and 0.93 (0.86-1.00), p for trend: 0.025, < 0.001, and 0.041, respectively]. Furthermore, a borderline significant interaction was found between alcohol consumption and the intake of processed meat with regard to breast cancer risk (P for interaction = 0.065). No multiplicative interaction was observed between dietary factors and PRS.Conclusion Processed meat was positively associated with breast cancer risk, and vegetables, fruits, and healthy dietary patterns were negatively associated with breast cancer risk. We found no strong interaction of dietary factors with alcohol consumption and genetic predisposition for risk of breast cancer.