NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – A new study suggests that women who eat diets rich in meat and dairy may have a decreased risk of breast cancer, while those who bulk up on fibre, fruits and vegetables show a lower risk of ovarian cancer.

The findings, published in the International Journal of Cancer, add to questions surrounding the role of diet in women's risk of the cancers. High alcohol intake has been consistently linked to breast cancer risk, but when it comes to other facets of the diet, studies have yielded conflicting results, according to the researchers on the current work, led by Dr. Valeria Edefonti of the University of Milan. Some studies, for example, have found that women who eat a lot of red and processed meat are more likely to develop breast cancer than other women; but other studies have found no such link. Saturated fat, found mainly in animal products, has been tied to higher breast cancer risk in some studies, but not in others. While many of these studies have looked at single nutrients or food groups, another way to address the question is to look at dietary patterns – the combination of nutrients and foods that a person tends to favour.

For their study, Edefonti and her colleagues assessed dietary patterns among 3,600 women with either breast or ovarian cancer, and 3,413 healthy women of the same age. Overall, the study found, women who followed a pattern rich in vitamins and fiber had a 23 percent lower risk of ovarian cancer than women who consumed the lowest amounts of those foods and nutrients. On the other hand, the animal-product pattern was linked to a similar reduction in breast cancer risk.