Breast cancer research : BCRAug 8, 2024

Links between heart health, breast cancer risk, and death based on genetic breast cancer risk

Circadian Biology Weekly Brief ↗PubMed ↗DOI ↗OA ↗

Updated Mar 28, 2026

Abstract

High cardiovascular health scores are associated with a 22% lower risk of breast cancer incidence and a 43% lower risk of breast cancer mortality among postmenopausal women.

Among postmenopausal women, those with a high cardiovascular health score had a significantly decreased risk of breast cancer incidence and mortality compared to those with a low score.
No significant association was found between cardiovascular health scores and breast cancer among premenopausal women.
In high genetic risk groups, a high cardiovascular health score was linked to a 28% decrease in breast cancer incidence and a 71% decrease in mortality.
No significant associations were observed in low genetic risk groups regarding cardiovascular health scores.
Postmenopausal women with low cardiovascular health scores and high genetic risk showed a substantially increased risk of breast cancer incidence.

Simplified

BACKGROUND: Accumulating evidence suggests that cardiovascular diseases and breast cancer share a number of common risk factors, however, evidence on the association between cardiovascular health (CVH) and breast cancer is limited. The present study aimed to assess the association of CVH, defined by (LE8) and genetic risk with breast cancer incidence and mortality among premenopausal and postmenopausal women.

METHODS: We used data from the UK Biobank and conducted the multivariate Cox proportional-hazards models to examine associations of LE8 score and genetic risk with breast cancer incidence and mortality. Date on LE8 score was collected between 2006 and 2010 and composed of eight components, including behavioral metrics (diet, tobacco or nicotine exposure, physical activity, and sleep health), and biological metrics (body mass index, blood lipids, blood glucose, and blood pressure). The (PRS) was calculated as the sum of effect sizes of individual genetic variants multiplied by the allele dosage.

RESULTS: A total of 150,566 premenopausal and postmenopausal women were included. Compared to postmenopausal women with low LE8 score, those with high LE8 score were associated with 22% lower risk of breast cancer incidence (HR: 0.78, 95% CI: 0.70-0.87) and 43% lower risk of breast cancer mortality (HR: 0.57, 95% CI: 0.36-0.90). By contrast, we did not observe the significant association among premenopausal women. Further analyses stratified by PRS categories showed that high LE8 score was associated with 28% and 71% decreased risk of breast cancer incidence (HR: 0.72, 95% CI: 0.60-0.87) and mortality (HR: 0.29, 95% CI: 0.10-0.83) compared to low LE8 score among high genetic risk groups, but no significant associations were found among low genetic risk groups. Furthermore, compared with postmenopausal women with high LE8 score and low genetic risk, those with low LE8 score and high genetic risk were associated with increased risk of breast cancer incidence (HR: 6.26, 95% CI: 4.43-8.84).

CONCLUSIONS: The present study suggests that better CVH is a protective factor for both breast cancer incidence and mortality among postmenopausal women. Moreover, the risk of developing breast cancer caused by high genetic susceptibility could be largely offset by better CVH.

Key numbers

22%

Decrease in breast cancer incidence risk

High score vs. low score among postmenopausal women

43%

Decrease in breast cancer mortality risk

High score vs. low score among postmenopausal women

6.26×

Increase in breast cancer incidence risk

Low score and high genetic risk vs. high score and low genetic risk

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Links between heart health, breast cancer risk, and death based on genetic breast cancer risk

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