Abstract P2-11-01: Breast cancer (BC) risk among patients with benign breast disease (BBD) by NSAID use
Authors: Vierkant Robert A , Masters Matthew , Teras Lauren R , Sherman Mark E 
Published: March 2022

Background: Approximately one million U.S women are diagnosed with benign breast disease (BBD) annually, which increases breast cancer (BC) risk between 1.5- and four-fold, depending on the pathologic characteristics of the lesion and other factors. BBD lesions are associated with inflammation and fibrosis, suggesting that inflammatory pathways may play a role in progression of BBD to BC. Aspirin and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are well tolerated, widely used drugs that block inflammation by inhibiting cyclooxygenase enzymes, which lowers prostaglandin synthesis, and by exerting numerous additional anti-inflammatory effects. NSAIDs are inversely associated with several types of cancer, including BC in some, but not all studies, and have been linked to lower BC risk among BBD patients in prior publications. We examined the association between NSAID use and BC risk, overall and by self-reported history of BBD, using data from the American Cancer Society Cancer Prevention Study II (CPS-II). Methods: The Cancer Prevention Study-II (CPS-II) Nutrition Cohort is a study of approximately 189,000 U.S. men and women followed prospectively for cancer incidence and mortality. Study participants filled out a detailed questionnaire at baseline in 1992/1993 and follow-up surveys in 1997 and every two years until 2017. On each follow-up survey, participants reported type, quantity, and duration of NSAID use as well as diagnoses of BBD. Incident BCs were either self-reported and validated via medical records or cancer registry linkage, or identified via National Death Index linkage. Women in the analytic cohort were followed from date of 1997 survey until diagnosis of BC, reported use of tamoxifen, report of cancer other than BC, date of death, loss to follow-up or end of follow-up. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) assessing associations of BBD and NSAID use with BC risk were estimated using Cox proportional hazards regression analysis. Statistical interactions between BBD and NSAID were evaluated by fitting and testing the corresponding cross-product terms, along with the main effects of each. Both NSAID use and BBD were modeled as time-dependent variables, allowing exposure status to change over the course of the multiple surveys returned. Results: Of the 60,517 women included in the study, 3,899 (6.4%) developed BC. Mean follow-up time was 12.7 years. A total of 23,661 women (39%) reported a diagnosis of BBD at some point during the study period, and 54,656 (90%) reported some NSAID use. Women self-reporting BBD were 46% more likely to develop BC than those without self-reported BBD (HR 1.46, 95% CI 1.36-1.57). Overall, BC risk was not increased among NSAID users versus non-users (HR 0.95, 95% CI 0.88-1.02). In contrast, BC risk was reduced among current NSAID users with a history of BBD (HR 0.87, 95% CI 0.78-0.97), but not among NSAID users who did not report a history of BBD (HR 1.02, 95% CI 0.92-1.13, p-interaction=0.04). Risk did not differ across number of pills per month (RR=0.84 for &lt;15 pills/month, 0.89 for 15-29, 0.88 for 30-44, 0.78 for 45-59, 0.88 for 60+). Conclusion: In our study, NSAID use had a statistically-significant protective effect on BC risk among women with BBD, suggesting its potential use as a chemopreventive agent in this high-risk group of women, but not among those who did not report a history of BBD.

Citation Format: Robert A Vierkant, Matthew Masters, Lauren R Teras, Mark E Sherman. Breast cancer (BC) risk among patients with benign breast disease (BBD) by NSAID use [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2021 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2021 Dec 7-10; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2022;82(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P2-11-01.