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Dietary Intake of Lactose as a Strong Predictor for Secretor Status of Nipple Aspirate Fluid in Healthy Premenopausal Nonlactating Women

Authors' Affiliations: Departments of ¹ Preventive Medicine and Community Health, and ² Obstetrics and Gynecology, The University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas

Requests for reprints: Lee-Jane W. Lu, Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health, The University of Texas Medical Branch, 700 Harborside Drive, Galveston, TX 77555-1109. Phone: 409-772-1730; Fax: 409-772-6287; E-mail: llu{at}utmb.edu.

Purpose: Nipple aspirate fluid (NAF) is considered a potential source for discovering breast cancer biomarkers. However, the success rate of obtaining NAF was reported to vary from 48% to 77%, and mechanisms for its secretion are not fully understood. The purpose of this study was to investigate dietary, demographic, reproductive, hormonal, and anthropometric factors that are associated with the ability to obtain NAF by aspiration (secretor status) from premenopausal women.

Study Design: NAF procedures were attempted for women who were 30 to 40 years old, not pregnant, not breast-feeding, and not taking contraceptive medications.

Results: Compared with nonsecretors, secretors of NAF consumed significantly more dietary lactose (mainly from milk), were more likely to be parous, were older at first and last childbirth, breast-fed their babies for a longer period of time, and had an earlier menarche and lower plasma concentrations of 17β-estradiol (P < 0.05). Using multivariate logistic regression models, higher dietary intake of lactose [odds ratio (OR), 2.7; 95% confidence interval (95% CI), 1.5-4.8], earlier menarche (OR, 0.8; 95% CI, 0.7-1.0), being parous (OR, 2.3; 95% CI, 1.0-5.6), and being older at first childbirth (OR, 1.5; 95% CI, 1.0-2.1) were found to be independent and positive predictors for being a secretor of NAF.

Conclusions: These findings suggest that dietary intake of lactose, a modifiable factor, may be used to change the NAF secretor status of women. This finding may facilitate the use of NAF as a diagnostic material for detecting breast diseases.