YOO Keun-Young, professor of preventive medicine, said on Feb. 17 that inadequate consumption of fat increases the chance of breast cancer.

His research team conducted a comparative study on 690 breast cancer patients in the Seoul National University Hospital from 2004 and 2005, and 1,380 healthy women of similar age and weight.

According to the study, women with higher levels of triglyceride in their blood than the normal 150 mg/dl were 1.35 times more likely to have breast cancer. The level of triglyceride rises when consuming animal fat, such as meat and fish, and the higher it is, the more likely the host is to suffer from arteriosclerosis, which can subsequently cause strokes and cardiovascular diseases.

The incidence of breast cancer among Korean women has dramatically increased in recent years, from 5,744 in 1999 to 9,898 in 2005, with half of patients being young women in their thirties and forties. Prof. Yoo Keun-young at Seoul National University said,"The reason behind the growing number of young, slim breast cancer patients is the excessive consumption of fatty foods before menopause greatly increases the likelihood of breast cancer."

The results of the research were published in the February edition of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Feb.25, 2009
SNU PR Office