Is There a Bitter Truth, About Artificial Sweeteners and the Risk of Breast Cancer
Asking whether artificial sweeteners, such as aspartame (e.g. Equal) can increase breast cancer risk not an unusual question in our setting. An observational study carried out in France of more than 100,000 adults concluded that individuals who consume larger amounts of artificial sweeteners, especially aspartame, had a slightly elevated risk of cancer. Fortunately, there is more specific data has the consumption of aspartame applies to breast cancer. Data from the Nurses’ Health Study, and The Nurses’ Health Study II have been made available in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute and addresses this very issue. These two studies evaluated 10,000 patients with, 814 of which were diagnosed with breast cancer. There was a 30 year follow up with a four- year assessment of intake of aspartame
Overall, the researchers found that there was no association between the intake of aspartame and the risk of invasive breast cancer. There was a similar lack of association after excluding cases of breast cancer, which occurred in the first 10 years of follow up.
The authors concluded that aspartame consumption did not increase breast cancer risk.
– Alan Stolier
Dr. Alan Stolier, MD, FACS, clinical breast oncologist, shares his expert medical perspective with a series of educational and scientific articles.