"Researchers are finding more evidence that diet early in life could play a role in the development of diseases in women later in life," says Dr. Karin Michels, of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and Harvard Medical School, who led the study.
Michels adds, "This study provides additional evidence that breast cancer may originate during the early phases of a woman's life and that eating habits during that phase may be particularly important to reduce future risk of breast cancer."
For their study, Michels and colleagues used an ongoing survey of female registered nurses, Reuters reports. They studied 582 women with breast cancer and 1,569 women free of breast cancer in 1993.
Writing in the International Journal of Cancer, the researchers said they looked at the women's diets and at questionnaires filled out by the mothers of the participants.
One risk factor for breast cancer stood out: women whose mothers who said their daughters ate French fries had a higher risk of breast cancer. This increased 27 percent for each weekly serving reportedly eaten.
"These data have to be interpreted cautiously since the observed association between consumption of French fries and breast cancer is dependent on the validity of the maternal recall of the diet," says Michels.
