low fat diet and breast cancer

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Tue, 17 May 2005 08:11:12 EDT

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Re: Low fat diet and breast ca recurrence

 

Diet-Cancer Experts Welcome WINS Study

PR Newswire

May 16, 2005

The following is a statement of Ritva Butrum, Senior

Science Advisor to

the

American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR):

We at AICR are greatly encouraged by the results from

the Women's

Intervention Nutrition Study (WINS) announced this

morning, which show

that breast cancer

survivors who reduced the amount of fat in their diets

were

significantly

less likely to experience a recurrence of breast

cancer over the next

five years.

As a cancer charity devoted exclusively to the study

of diet, nutrition

and

cancer, AICR has called for more and better science on

the role of diet

upon

cancer survivorship for years. The WINS study is one

example of such

long-overdue research, and we applaud it.

We now have direct clinical evidence that small,

healthy changes can

significantly lower the risk of recurrence.

We at AICR hope that breast cancer survivors will be

empowered by the

knowledge that they have an active and vitally

important role to play

in combating

cancer.

The precise relationship between dietary fat and

breast cancer risk has

been

controversial. Until the 1980s, high levels of dietary

fat were thought

to be

strongly associated with increased risk for breast

cancer. In the

1990s, some

research results cast doubt on this link.

Today's results from the WINS study suggest that it

may be necessary to

reexamine those early conclusions.

Determining the kind of diet that is best to lower

cancer risk is a

long,

ongoing and piecemeal process. Final, comprehensive

conclusions may

take years to

arrive. In the meantime, people concerned about cancer

and cancer

recurrence

would do well to eat a healthy diet rich in a variety

of vegetables,

fruits,

whole grains and beans and low in fat and salt.

The scientific thinking on fat and breast cancer is

still forming. (In

fact,

AICR researchers are currently conducting studies

suggesting that

different

kinds of fat exert vastly different influences upon

breast cancer

risk.) Today,

the millions of breast cancer survivors across the US

should take heart

in the

knowledge that what we eat and how we live has a

direct and

demonstrable

protective effect.

The WINS study, and several thousand other diet-cancer

studies, are now

being

reviewed by an expert international panel for the

second landmark

AICR/WCRF

report, Food, Nutrition, Physical Activity and Cancer:

A Global

Perspective.

This report, which will issue a series of dietary

recommendations, is

the most

comprehensive examination of the diet-cancer link ever

undertaken. It

is due to

be published in 2007.

The American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) is

the cancer charity

that

fosters research on diet and cancer and educates the

public about the

results.

CONTACT: Glen Weldon of AICR, +1-202-328-7744

Copyright © 2005 PR Newswire. .