HDL-cholesterol and incidence of breast cancer in the ARIC cohort study.

PURPOSE: An association of low plasma HDL-cholesterol with risk of breast cancer has been suggested by multiple studies; the evidence, however, is not conclusive. We examined the possible association of low HDL-cholesterol with incidence of breast cancer using data from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study (ARIC) cohort, a prospective study of a randomly selected sample of women and men from four U.S. communities.

METHODS: Among 7,575 female members of the ARIC cohort, 359 cases of incident breast cancer were ascertained during the follow-up from 1987 through 2000.

RESULTS: In analysis adjusted for age, race, body mass index, smoking, and reproductive variables, we observed no association of low baseline HDL-cholesterol (

CONCLUSION: Results of our study suggest that low HDL-cholesterol among premenopausal women may be a marker of increased breast cancer risk.