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 (<50 mg/dL) with incident breast cancer in the total sample (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.08 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.84–1.40]) and a modest association (HR = 1.67 [95% CI, 1.06–2.63]) among women who were premenopausal at baseline. No association was observed among women who were postmenopausal at baseline. Removal from analysis of the first 5 years of follow-up did not appreciably change the observed associations. Conclusion Results of our study suggest that low HDL-cholesterol among premenopausal women may be a marker of increased breast cancer risk.