ORLANDO, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Eating a diet loaded with fruits and
vegetables and low in fat did not reduce breast cancer recurrence or death in
early stage breast cancer survivors in a new study done by researchers at the
Rebecca and John Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San
Diego.
This study is the largest randomized trial ever done to gather information about
the influence of diet on breast cancer activity. "It's been praised as one of
the better studies. We got everything," John Pierce, Ph.D., director of the
University's Cancer Prevention and Control Program told Ivanhoe.
The study looked at 3,088 breast cancer survivors who were divided into two
randomly assigned diet groups for six to 11 years. One group followed an
intensified diet, which after the first year included increasing their vegetable
and fruit intake to an average of 12 servings per day, lowering their fat intake
by 13 percent, and increasing their daily fiber. The other group followed a
standard recommended healthy diet, which included five vegetable servings, 16
ounces of vegetable juice, three servings of fruit, 30 grams of fiber, and 15
percent to 20 percent fat intake. At the end of the study, and after seven years
of follow up, researchers found no difference in recurrence or survival between
groups. "It was very surprising to everybody because we always get some
difference, and to make such a huge change in your dietary pattern and get no
difference -- it's just amazing," said Dr. Pierce.
The research team emphasized that these results apply to the typical woman in
the study. Dr. Pierce said further research would be necessary to determine if
an intensified diet can benefit certain breast cancer survivors. "We think
there's possibly a sub group of women who would benefit from this high dietary
pattern … We're going to be looking at that."
SOURCE: Ivanhoe Interview with John Pierce, Ph.D., The Journal of the
American Medical Association, 2007;298:289-298
