Mediterranean diet may help stop breast cancer coming back

ksusan · June 2016

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/jun/05/med...

"The study presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting in Chicago is a trial in Italy which compared the outcomes for 307 women who had been treated for early breast cancer. One group of 199 women were asked to eat a Mediterranean diet, involving four portions of vegetables, three pieces of fruit and one serving of grains a day, together with four or more servings of fish each week, some red and processed meat and plenty of olive oil. They were allowed up to one alcoholic drink a day.

"The other group of 108 women were asked to eat their normal diet, but given advice on healthy food by a dietician.

"The cancer researchers at Piacenza hospital, Italy, found that after three years, 11 women from the group eating a normal diet suffered a return of their breast cancer, while none of those eating a Mediterranean diet did."

[In other words, about 5% vs 0%.]

magiclight · June 2016

An interesting study and as you say 'may' have some influence on cancer, but because it is a very small, non-randomized trial it is not sufficient to indicate what specific dietary or life style choices have a causal relationship with cancer recurrence. Having said that, this study may lead to other larger more rigorous scientific studies and that would be a good thing.

wallycat · June 2016

These "studies" are so misleading.....they did not indicate type of cancer? age of women? history? Some women ate "med" type diets and got cancer to begin with and now we are supposed to think changing nothing will prevent recurrence? And I know a lot of women are worried about 5-20 years down the line, not just the first 3, when we are in constant care and monitoring.

OK, maybe it is just me.

ksusan · June 2016

Yes, this is the newspaper article. I haven't dug up the scientific report.

BarredOwl · June 2016

Voila:

http://abstract.asco.org/176/AbstView_176_169960.html

BarredOwl

Ingerp · June 2016

Just chiming in that one day last week following rads I met with the nutritionist--did not know that would be part of treatment. She talked for a while, answered my questions, and gave me several hand-outs. She did say that the diet they recommend going forward to minimize probability of recurrence is basically the Mediterranean diet. She seemed big on what there is actually research to back up vs. things you might have heard or read without any science behind them. (E.g., I asked about anti-inflammatories going forward and she said there just isn't any hard research to support that yet.)

ksusan · June 2016

Thanks, BarredOwl.

ChiSandy · June 2016

Well, that answers whether I can safely “do as the Romans do,” at least dietarily, “when in Rome” next month. It doesn’t seem to address the relative impact of the standard bc-risk-reduction recommended diet vs. Mediterranean on BMI management.

KBeee · June 2016

I think it can certainly help prevent recurrence, but like anything, there is no magic bullet. I followed the Mediterranean diet and exercised daily. I have a BMI of 19.93, but you can see my history. On a brighter note, I had local recurrences and not metastatic (so far) and I continue to follow the same diet and exercise daily

mary625 · June 2016

What is interesting to me is the specification of only one serving of grains daily. The Mediterranean diet that I've heard of in the past had a much higher number of grain servings. I wonder if that's the reason for the diet's success.

Italychick · June 2016

when I ate in Italy, surprisingly their meals are not pasta heavy. It is treated more as a side dish and the meals were more concentrated on meat and vegetables. And fish. And squid, and marinated vegetables and ocean creatures

Mediterranean diet may help stop breast cancer coming back

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