Circulating carotenoids and risk of breast cancer: pooled analysis of eight prospective studies.

Background: Carotenoids, micronutrients in fruits and vegetables, may reduce breast cancer risk. Most, but not all, past studies of circulating carotenoids and breast cancer have found an inverse association with at least one carotenoid, although the specific carotenoid has varied across studies.

Methods: We conducted a pooled analysis of eight cohort studies comprising more than 80% of the world's published prospective data on plasma or serum carotenoids and breast cancer, including 3055 case subjects and 3956 matched control subjects.

Rye, lignans and human health.

Rye bran contains a high content not only of dietary fibre, but also of plant lignans and other bioactive compounds in the so-called dietary fibre complex. Blood concentrations of lignans such as enterolactone have been used as biomarkers of intake of lignan-rich plant food. At present,evidence from studies in human subjects does not warrant the conclusion that rye, whole grains orphyto-oestrogens protect against cancer.

An incident case-referent study on plasma enterolactone and breast cancer risk.

Objective: Using a nested case-referent design, we evaluated the relationship between plasma levels of the lignan enterolactone and the risk of developing breast cancer.

Methods: 248 cases and 492 referents were selected from three population-based cohorts in northern Sweden. Blood samples were donated at enrollment.