Patients with well-established risk factors for breast cancer have increased concentrations of circulating sex hormones, a large international analysis shows.
Obese women had the highest hormone concentrations, the analysis of more than 6000 postmenopausal women from 13 prospective studies found.
Cigarette smoking and alcohol were also associated with moderate increases in sex hormones, including oestradiol, oestrone, androstenedione, dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DHEAS) and testosterone.
Specifically, drinkers of more than 20g of alcohol per day had higher levels of all hormones than non-drinkers, but lower sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) – with the largest difference for DHEAS.
The analysis is the work of an international collaboration, which included the Melbourne Collaborative Cohort Study.
Writing in the British Journal of Cancer the...
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