The present study assessed more than 800 potential risk factors to identify new predictors of breast cancer and compare the independence and relative importance of established risk factors.
Data were collected by the Women's Health Initiative and included 147,202
women ages 50 to 79 who were enrolled from 1993 to 1998 and followed for 8
years. Analyses performed in 2011 and 2012 used the Cox proportional hazard
regression to test the association between more than 800 baseline risk factors
and incident breast cancer.
Baseline factors independently associated with subsequent breast cancer at the p<0 .001="" age="" and="" aspiration="" at="" biopsies="" births="" breast="" cancer="" decreasing="" digitalis="" estrogen="" family="" fewer="" greater="" history="" in="" level="" live="" menopause="" of="" order="" progestin="" significance="" statistical="" strong="" tenderness="" thyroid="" use="" weight="" were="">alcohol intake, white race, not restless, no vaginal dryness, relative with prostate cancer, colon polyps, smoking, no breast augmentation, and no osteoporosis. Risk factors previously reported that were not independently associated with breast cancer in the present study included socioeconomic status, months of breast feeding, age at first birth, adiposity measures, adult weight gain, timing of initiation of hormone therapy, and several dietary, psychological, and exercise variables. Family history was not found to alter the risk associated with other factors.
These results suggest that some risk factors not commonly studied may be
important for breast cancer and some frequently cited risk factors may be
relatively unimportant or secondary.
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