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Association between Alcohol Intake and Serum Sex Hormones and Peptides Differs by Tamoxifen Use in Breast Cancer Survivors

¹ New Mexico Tumor Registry, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico; ² Cancer Prevention Program, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington; ³ Department of Preventive Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California; ⁴ Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky; ⁵ City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, California; and ⁶ Applied Research Program, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland

Requests for reprints: Sharon Wayne, New Mexico Tumor Registry, University of New Mexico, MSC 11 6020, Albuquerque, NM 87131-0001. Phone: 505-272-6944; Fax: 505-272-6944. E-mail: swayne{at}salud.unm.edu

Objective: To measure the association between alcohol intake and 11 hormones and peptides in postmenopausal breast cancer survivors and to evaluate whether this association differs by tamoxifen use.

Methods: Self-reported alcohol intake was assessed via food frequency questionnaire on average 30 months post-breast cancer diagnosis in 490 postmenopausal women from three western states. Concurrently, a fasting blood sample was obtained for assay of estrone, estradiol, free estradiol, testosterone, free testosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS), sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG), leptin, C-peptide, insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I), and IGF-binding protein-3. Adjusted means of these hormones and peptides were calculated for categories of alcohol intake, overall and stratified by tamoxifen use.

Results: The association between alcohol intake and serum hormone and peptide levels differed by tamoxifen use. We found statistically significant inverse associations between alcohol intake and both leptin and SHBG values but only among tamoxifen users. In women not using tamoxifen, we found a positive association between alcohol intake and DHEAS but no association in tamoxifen users.

Conclusion: Tamoxifen may modify the association between alcohol intake and serum hormones and peptides. The significant associations found for DHEAS and SHBG are in a direction considered unfavorable for breast cancer prognosis. Postmenopausal breast cancer survivors may benefit from decreasing their alcohol intake. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2008;17(11):3224–32)