A high cholesterol intake may be linked to an increased risk of breast cancer, according to researchers from the Kimmel Cancer Center.

Cancer biologist Phillipe G. Frank and his colleagues, who published their paper in the American Journal of Pathology, examined the role of a high-fat, high-cholesterol diet in the onset of breast cancer in laboratory mice. They found that animals who were fed a typical Western diet appeared to be predisposed to developing mammary tumors, and that the disease progressed more quickly.

Previous studies have suggested that dietary fat and cholesterol play integral roles in the development of a number of tumor types.

"In a neighborhood, if you want to build more houses, you need more bricks. In tumors, cholesterol provides the bricks that are the foundation for further growth, and this cholesterol comes from the blood," Frank explained. "Cholesterol does indeed seem to be an important factor in the regulation of tumor formation."

He added that these findings may provide many new avenues for prevention, screening and treatment of breast cancer.

BreastCancer.org reports that the disease is estimated to affect one out of every seven women during their lifetime.