Chicago - Monounsaturated fat, the kind found in olive and canola oils, can cut nearly in half a woman's risk of breast cancer, according to a study published Sunday.
But polyunsaturated fat, the type found in seafood and other kinds of vegetable oils, appears to increase the risk of the same cancer by 69 percent, the study added.
The report came from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and was based on a study of more than 61,000 Swedish women between the ages of 40 and 70 who checked from 1987 to 1990.
It was published in this week's issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, issued by the American Medical Association.
By asking the women what they ate and then checking a cancer registry to determine who among the group developed breast cancer later on, the researchers found that monounsaturated fat in the diet appeared to reduce the risk of breast cancer by 45 percent while polyunsaturated fat increased the risk by 69 percent.
Saturated fat -- the kind found in meat and dairy products -- had no effect on breast cancer one way or the other, the study said.
"Recently, four ... studies from Spain, Greece and Italy indicated that consumption of olive oil, the main source of monounsaturated fat in the Mediterranean diet, was associated with a decreased risk of breast cancer," the study said.
"The authors of these studies speculated that the effect might be specific for olive oil. We have evaluated the effects on risk of breast cancer of specific types of dietary fats in Sweden, a country with very low consumption of olive oil," it added.
The assessment found that the apparent protective benefits involved the whole category of monounsaturated fats, not just olive oil, the study said.
"Research investigations and health policy considerations should take into account the emerging evidence that monounsaturated fat might be protective for risk of breast cancer," the report added.
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