Women who ate soy regularly as a child have a much lower risk of developing breast cancer, a study has concluded.

Researchers from the National Cancer Institute and the University of Hawaii studied 597 Asian-American women with breast cancer and 966 women without the disease.

They found women who consumed the most soy-based products when they were aged between 5 and 11 had a 58 per cent lower risk of breast cancer than women who ate the least.

"This is the first study to look at childhood soy exposure and the later risk of breast cancer. It suggests that there really is a biologic effect for soy, and we're excited about that," said Dr Larissa Korde, researcher at the National Cancer Institute.

Soy can be found in a large number of foods, including Miso, Tofu, Tamari, Shoyu and Soybean Oil.

In another recent study, Harvard School of Public Health researchers found men who consume plenty of fish have a lower risk of bowel cancer.

The team analysed data on more than 22,000 American men and found those who ate fish five times a week had a 40 per cent lower risk of bowel cancer compared with men who did not eat fish.

Eating fish twice a week reduced the risk of developing bowel cancer by nearly 15 per cent, the researchers said.

The findings of both studies were presented at an American Association for Cancer Research meeting in Boston last week.

Research conducted by Imaginis shows that breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in women (after lung cancer) worldwide and is the most common type of cancer found among women in the world.

According to the latest figures from the World Health Organization, around 1.5 million people worldwide will be diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006.

Bowel cancer is the second most frequent cancer in men (after lung cancer) worldwide.

More than one million cases of bowel cancer were diagnosed around the world in 2002, and over half a million people died from this disease.

The article Soy reduces breast cancer risk originally appeared on 999 Today