Low in fat, lower in recurrence, cancer study suggests.the results of a decade-long study on the effects of a low-fat diet low-fat diet A diet low in fats, especially saturated fats, which has a positive effect on arthritis, CA, ASHD, DM, HTN, obesity, and strokes. See Diet, Low-fat snack; Cf Animal fat, High-fat diet. on breast cancer recurrence recurrence /re·cur·rence/ (-ker´ens) the return of symptoms after a remission.recur´rent re·cur·rence n. 1. were presented in May at a meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology American Society of Clinical Oncology, or ASCO, is an organization that represents all clinical oncologists. Every year, ASCO holds a large symposium where physicians and researchers meet to convey and discuss research and ideas. in Orlando, FL. The study, of 2,437 postmenopausal post·men·o·paus·al adj. Of or occurring in the time following menopause. postmenopausal Change of life Gynecology adjective Referring to the time in ♀ when menstrual periods stop for ≥ 1 yr women with early stage breast cancer, was established by the National Cancer Institute in 1994 as one of three dietary components of the Women's Health Initiative Women's Health Initiative A 15-yr, $628 million project involving 1. An observational study of the health habits and medical Hx of ±100,000 ♀ 2. . The researchers found that, of the 975 women assigned to a low-fat diet along with standard medical treatment, 9.8% had breast cancer recurrence. But 12.4% of the controls, who maintained their usual diets in conjunction with standard treatment, saw their cancer return. Overall, the low-fat dieters had a 20% reduction in their rate of cancer recurrence over a five-year interval. While the results of the study are only marginally statistically significant, it is the first time that a large, rigorous, randomized clinical trial randomized clinical trial, n a clinical study where volunteer participants with comparable characteristics are randomly assigned to different test groups to compare the efficacy of therapies. shows that diet could have any impact on breast cancer. The researchers likened the diet's influence on the patients' recovery to that of adding a new drug to their regimen. The low-fat dieters maintained a diet that researchers said was so low in fat that it was about as low as possible without being a vegetarian diet. The 1,462 controls took in an average of 51 g of fat daily. By contrast, the dieters consumed on average 33 g of fat per day. One tempting conclusion to draw from this intriguing trial is that, since there are no known drawbacks to such a diet, a corroborating study to examine and confirm the diet's causal link to cancer-fighting seems almost beside the point. Still, reasons for the low-fat diet's effectiveness remain unclear. The mechanism may be found in the sheer fact that the women lost weight--in many cases 10 pounds or more--and not in the negligible amount of fat that they consumed. Or the effect could stem from the substitution of certain other foods for the fat that was removed, that then affected the cancer recurrence rate directly. In any case, it's important to stress that the report is not claiming that a low-fat diet prevents breast cancer. But the possibility of discovering a breast cancer weapon as natural and benign as a low-fat diet is certainly a positive and welcome one indeed. (Cancer, 1994, Vol. 1, No. 74 (9 Suppl), pp. 2734-2738; The New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times, May 17, 2005) |
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