RECENTLY there has been some debate over whether toxins in fatty fish such as farmed fish can cause breast cancer.

Now, an extensive new European wide study shows that fish consumption neither increases nor reduces the risk of such cancer.

The European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC), has studied over 300 000 female participants from ten European countries spanning over a period of 6-12 years and more than 4700 of the European women in the study developed breast cancer during this period. The result shows that women who ate fish had not increased or reduced the danger of breast cancer.

The study examined fish consumption and breast cancer risk in 310,671 women aged between 25 and 70 at recruitment into the European Prospective Investigation Into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC). The participants completed a dietary questionnaire between 1992-98 and were followed up for incidence of breast cancer for a median of 6.4 yr. Hazard ratio for breast cancer by intake of total and lean and fatty fish were estimated, stratified by study centre and adjusted for established breast cancer risk factors. During follow-up, 4,776 invasive incident breast cancers were reported. No significant associations between intake of total fish and breast cancer risk were observed. Although the period of follow-up is relatively short, the results provide no evidence for an association between fish intake and breast cancer risk. The study was recently published in the International Journal of Cancer.

www.fishupdate.com is published by Special Publications. Special Publications also publish FISHupdate magazine, Fish Farmer, the Fish Industry Yearbook, the Scottish Seafood Processors Federation Diary, the Fish Farmer Handbook and a range of wallplanners.

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