Background: Dietary acid load (DAL) may play a key role in certain cancers, including breast cancer (BC); however, evidence showing a causal relationship is lacking.
Aim: We examined the relationship between DAL, assessed with both the potential renal acid load (PRAL) and the net endogenous acid production (NEAP) scores, and BC risk.
Methods: We identified 150 women who had a diagnosis of BC recently and 150 age-matched apparently healthy controls. Data from dietary intake and anthropometric measures were collected from participants and eventually, PRAL and NEAP scores were obtained from nutrient intakes. Multivariate odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were used to evaluate the relationship of BC risk with PRAL and NEAP scores.
Results: The odds ratios (OR) of BC according to tertiles of PRAL and NEAP scores by multivariate logistic regression models revealed that both PRAL (P-trend = 0.8) and NEAP (P-trend = 0.1) scores were not significantly associated with BC risk. After controlling confounders, multiple logistic regressions still remained non-significant which indicated no significant associations between PRAL (P-trend = 0.9), NEAP (P-trend = 0.4) scores and risk of BC.
Conclusion: The results of our study suggested that there is no significant relationship between DAL and BC incidence among Iranian women.
Keywords: acid-base balance; breast cancer; dietary acid load; net endogenous acid production; potential renal acid load.
© 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.