Objectives: Breast cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among women in Serbia. The aim of this study was to examine possible association of breast cancer occurrence in relation to method of cooking in Serbian women.

Materials and methods: A hospital-based, individually matched case-control study analyzing risk factors for breast cancer was conducted in University Clinical Centre in Kragujevac (Serbia). A total of 382 women (191 cases with histologically confirmed incident breast cancer and 191 controls) were interviewed. In this paper, only data on the method of food preparation were presented (i.e., type of fat used; fresh or frozen meat, milk, vegetables, fruits; smoked food, fried food, cooked food, grilled food; spices such as salt, pepper, ground red pepper (aleva), vegeta, chili pepper, celery, primrose, horseradish, vinegar). Logistic regression was used to calculate odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) as estimates of the risk of breast cancer.

Results: Compared with controls, breast cancer cases significantly much more reported preparing food with lard (OR=4.57, 95%CI=1.51-13.84; p=0.007). The increase of risk for breast cancer was associated with use of smoked food (OR=1.67; 95%CI=1.17-2.38; p=0.005), especially in those who regularly used smoked food every week (OR=3.12; 95%CI=1.08-9.01; p=0.036). The reduced of risk for breast cancer was associated with chili pepper use (OR=0.56; 95%CI=0.37-0.86; p=0.008).

Conclusion: Our study provides findings for the importance of cooking method for breast cancer risk, and indicates some ways of the possible role of cooking method in prevention of this disease.