Dr. Takeshi Suzuki, at Aichi Cancer Center Research Institute in Nagoya, and associates conducted a study of 678 women with breast cancer and 3,390 controls matched by age and menopausal status with no history of cancer.
The researchers "observed a significantly reduced risk" of breast cancer among the women who ate the most soy and were ER-positive, HER2-negative or both.
For women who ate the most soy compared with those who ate the least amount the odds of having ER-positive breast cancer were reduced by 26 percent and for women with HER2-negative breast cancer, the reduced risk was 22 percent.
Soy intake was not significantly associated with HER2-positive or ER-negative tumors, or with the presence or absence of the progesterone receptor (PR).
However, Suzuki's team found that "when the three receptors were jointly examined, a reduced risk was observed only for patients with ER-positive/PR-positive/HER2-negative tumors," with a 27-percent reduction seen only in the women who ate the most soy.
"These findings are biologically plausible, and suggest a potential benefit of soybean products in the prevention of breast cancer," the investigators conclude.
Bonnie - this is a significant study because it confirms several things that we know about soy.
1) Soy is not a cancer preventative for everyone. It would make sense that soy would reduce positive estrogen receptor breast cancer because phytoestrogens can have a positive effect on balancing good and bad estrogen.
2) Only fermented soy foods (tofu, tempeh, miso) are healthful. Most of the soy products in the Western Diet: soy protein isolate, soybean oil, etc. have no beneficial effect on health. This study was performed in Japan, where fermented soy products aare consumed exclusively.
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