The association between nutrition and cancer in general had been a controversial issue between scientists in the last
three decades, because some argued that there is a relationship and some nutrients can help in preventing cancer
occurrence, although this has not been a consistent finding by other studies. Studies were identified through a
systematic review of literature available on PubMed in between 1st January 2010 to 31st December 2013. We
included all studies that assessed nutrition or diet with occurrence or mortality of breast cancer. Out of 42 articles,
we included 8 articles in our screening and discussion. Among these 8 studies, there were 2 case-controls, 3 cohort
and 3 randomized control trials (RCT) studies. Although most studies reported that nutrition isassociated with
decreased risk, some reported the contrary,whereas others reported no relation. It was demonstrated a conflict
between the included papers in regards of the association between nutrition and breast cancer. These finding needs
to be re-evaluated in future studies.
The purpose of the study was to determine the level of knowledge and beliefs about female breast cancer among male students. A cross-sectional study involving 460 male students of a private university selected by convenient sampling was conducted using self-administered questionnaires that consists of socio-demographic details as well as knowledge and beliefs about female breast cancer. The prevalence of good knowledge was only 45.2%, there was a significant association between level of knowledge and age, course of study (p=0.02 and < 0.001, respectively). The prevalence of poor belief was 72.6% and the main source of information was the media (84.1 %). There was no significant association between beliefs about female breast cancer and family income, mother’s education and race. However, there was a significant association between beliefs about female breast cancer and age, course of study and father’s education. As a conclusion, the knowledge and beliefs about female breast cancer among the male students was very poor. More education and awareness need to be emphasized; especially the media was the most common source of information in our study.