Milk and Breast Cancer

Abstract
Nowadays, breast cancer become more common among women compares to last few decades ago. It may because of the inherited factors, environmental exposures, lifestyle and eating patterns that differ among the countries. The women in western country may have a higher risk of getting breast cancer compare to the Asian. It is because the western people having the habit of drinking milk or consuming dairy product as their main source of protein compare to the Asian who cannot tolerate with milk as western’s, thus consuming lesser milk and dairy product. Recently, there is some findings show that milk could affect breast cancer risk. It may due to the components of the milk such as Insulin-like growth factors (IGF-I), estrogen hormone and pesticide which can promote the breast cancer cells to develop. However, there are also some components of the milk that can help to prevent breast cancer as well, such as vitamin D and calcium, conjugated linoleic acid and glutathione. Among all the findings and researches, they do not have any strong evidence that can support the association between the consumption of milk and breast cancer risk. In contrast, there are also a few studies show that reducing milk consumption will decrease the risk of breast cancer and eating Mediterranean diet can prevent breast cancer too.
Introduction
A decade ago, cervical cancer was a leading cause of cancer deaths among women. Now, breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in most parts of the world. According to an article from Breast Health Information Centre, breast cancer rate is the highest in North Europe and America, intermediate in the Mediterranean countries and South America and lowest in Asia and Africa. However, it is the leading cause of cancer deaths in women in Malaysia. Statistics shows that the death toll from breast cancer in Malaysian women is increasing each year. According to the statistics report in 2008 by the National Cancer Registry, between the years... [continues]

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