Milk Associated with Serous Ovarian Cancer Risk

November 6, 2004

Milk and lactose intakes and ovarian cancer risk in the Swedish

Mammography Cohort1,2,3

na C Larsson, Leif Bergkvist and Alicja Wolk

1 From the Division of Nutritional Epidemiology, The National

Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm

(SCL and AW), and the Department of Surgery and the Center for

Clinical Research, Uppsala University, Central Hospital, Västerås,

Sweden (LB)

Background: High intakes of dairy products and of the milk sugar

lactose have been hypothesized to increase ovarian cancer risk, but

prospective data are scarce.

Objective: We examined the association between intakes of dairy

products and lactose and the risk of total epithelial ovarian cancer

and its subtypes.

Design: This was a prospective population-based cohort study of 61

084 women aged 38–76 y who were enrolled in the Swedish Mammography

Cohort. Diet was assessed in 1987–1990 with the use of a self-

administered food-frequency questionnaire. During an average follow-

up of 13.5 y, 266 women were diagnosed with invasive epithelial

ovarian cancer; 125 of those women had serous ovarian cancer.

Results: After adjustment for potential confounders, women who

consumed 4 servings of total dairy products/d had a risk of serous

ovarian cancer (rate ratio: 2.0; 95% CI: 1.1, 3.7; P for trend =

0.06) twice that of women who consumed <2 servings/d. No significant

association was found for other subtypes of ovarian cancer. Milk was

the dairy product with the strongest positive association with serous

ovarian cancer (rate ratio comparing consuming 2 glasses milk/d with

consuming milk never or seldom: 2.0; 95% CI: 1.1, 3.7; P for trend =

0.04). We observed a positive association between lactose intake and

serous ovarian cancer risk (P for trend = 0.006).

Conclusions: Our data indicate that high intakes of lactose and dairy

products, particularly milk, are associated with an increased risk of

serous ovarian cancer but not of other subtypes of ovarian cancer.

Future studies should consider ovarian cancer subtypes separately.

Key Words: Ovarian cancer • milk • lactose • galactose • diet •

epidemiology • cohort studies

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