Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in women world- wide, and dietary lipids are important environmental factors influencing its etiology. In this work we present data in relation to the transcriptional effects of two high-fat diets, one high in corn oil (HCO) and one high in extra-virgin olive oil (HOO), administered from weaning or after induction, on 7,12-dimethylbenz(a) anthra- cene (DMBA)-induced rat mammary tumors. Raw data were deposited at ArrayExpress under accession number E-MTAB-3541. We compared the gene expression profiles of the mammary tumors from the high-fat diet groups with those from the control group, finding different effects of diets depending on timing and type of dietary intervention. Lists of differentially expressed genes were analyzed to find overrepresented categories of biological significance. Here we provide information about the cell functions categories overrepresented in significantly modulated genes by effect of the high-fat diets. Further investigations of such functions are described in 'A high corn oil diet strongly stimulates mammary carcinogenesis, while a high extra virgin olive oil diet has a weak effect, through changes in metabolism, immune system function, and proliferation/apoptosis pathways'.