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Soy intake in association with menopausal symptoms during the first 6 and 36 months after breast cancer diagnosis

  • Epidemiology
  • Published:
Breast Cancer Research and Treatment Aims and scope Submit manuscript

An Erratum to this article was published on 02 February 2011

Abstract

It has been suggested that soy food and its components may relieve menopausal symptoms (MPS) including hot flashes, night sweats, and vaginal dryness in healthy women. However, little is known about the effect of soy food intake on MPS in women with breast cancer. We examined associations of occurrence of MPS with soy food intake in 4,842 Chinese women aged 20–75 years who had non-metastatic breast cancer and had not used hormone replacement therapy. MPS were assessed at 6 and 36 months after cancer diagnosis using a standardized questionnaire, and associations with soy food intake were evaluated in multivariate regression analyses. Daily soy food intake was assessed at 6 months postdiagnosis and over the first 36 months postdiagnosis using a validated food frequency questionnaire. The prevalence of MPS was 56% at 6 months and 63% at 36 months postdiagnosis with the hotflash being the most common MPS (~44–55%). Hot flashes occurred mainly in premenopausal breast cancer patients who were in the highest quartile of isoflavone intake at 6 months postdiagnosis (OR = 1.20, 95% CI: 0.98–1.59) compared with the lowest quartile. This association was stronger at 36 months postdiagnosis (OR = 1.59, 95% CI: 1.02–2.48). We found no significant associations for any MPS, night sweats, or vaginal dryness. Neither tamoxifen use nor BMI modified the association between MPS and isoflavone intake. There was no evidence that soy food consumption reduced MPS among breast cancer patients. High soy intake may increase the prevalence of hotflashes among premenopausal patients. Our study suggests that soy acts as an estrogen antagonist in breast cancer patients.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the research staff of the Shanghai Breast Cancer Survival Study in Shanghai, China for implementing the study and to all of the women who participated in the SBCSS. We also thank Dr. Fan Jin for her contributions to the field operations and Bethanie Hull and Rod Jones for their technical assistance in the preparation of this manuscript. Funding for this study was provided by the U.S. Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program (DAMD 17-02-1-0607) and the National Cancer Institute (R01 CA118229).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Vanderbilt Epidemiology Center, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, 2525 West End Avenue, Suite 600, Nashville, TN, 37203-1738, USA

    Tsogzolmaa Dorjgochoo, Asha Kallianpur, Zhi Chen, Wei Zheng & Xiao Ou Shu

  2. Shanghai Institute of Preventive Medicine, 1380 Zhong Shan Road (W), Shanghai, 200336, China

    Kai Gu, Ying Zheng & Wei Lu

Authors
  1. Tsogzolmaa Dorjgochoo
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  2. Kai Gu
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  3. Ying Zheng
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  4. Asha Kallianpur
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  5. Zhi Chen
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  6. Wei Zheng
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  7. Wei Lu
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  8. Xiao Ou Shu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xiao Ou Shu.

Additional information

An erratum to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10549-011-1356-y

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Dorjgochoo, T., Gu, K., Zheng, Y. et al. Soy intake in association with menopausal symptoms during the first 6 and 36 months after breast cancer diagnosis. Breast Cancer Res Treat 130, 879–889 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-010-1096-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-010-1096-4

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