Background:

While periodontal disease has been linked to increased cancer risk, studies regarding an association with breast cancer are limited.

Methods:

We examined the relationship between self-reported diagnosis of periodontal bone loss and incidence of breast cancer in a large, prospective cohort study, the Nurses' Health Study (1998–2014). We calculated HRs using Cox proportional hazards modeling, adjusting for risk factors common to both periodontal disease and breast cancer.

Results:

During 1,023,647 person-years of follow-up, 5,110 of breast cancer cases were reported. We observed no association between periodontal disease and overall breast cancer risk (HR, 1.02; 95% confidence interval: 0.94–1.10); the association was not modified by smoking status, or other breast cancer risk factors or by breast tumor subtypes.

Conclusions:

We did not observe any association between periodontal disease and breast cancer risk.

Impact:

Given inconsistent findings in the literature, further research with standardized clinical measures of periodontitis is warranted.

©2021 American Association for Cancer Research
2021
American Association for Cancer Research
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