Low fat diet reduces recurrence risk by up to 42%

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My oncologist just told me that there is 42% reduced risk of recurrence for HER2+ ER - cancer survivors who eat a very low fat diet.

http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/dec2006/nci-19.htm

After a median of five years of follow-up, breast cancer recurrence or new breast cancers occurred in 9.8 percent of the women on the low-fat diet and in 12.4 percent of those on the standard diet. This amounted to a 24 percent reduction in the relative risk of recurrence for the women on the low-fat diet. The largest risk reduction — 42 percent — appeared to be among women on the low-fat diet whose tumors did not respond to the presence of the hormone estrogen. The risk reduction was 15 percent in women who did respond to estrogen. Breast cancer that doesn’t respond to estrogen is called estrogen receptor negative (ER-negative) and usually has a poorer outcome than ER-positive disease. “Reductions were predicted in women with ER-positive disease because of the association between fat intake and estrogen levels but the effect on ER-negative disease is, if verified, a surprising and potentially important observation regarding breast cancer and signals a possible new avenue of research,” said John Milner, Ph.D., Chief of the Nutritional Science Research Group at NCI.

[TanyaRD]

Yes, this is from the WINS trial. It was very exciting news for ER- breast cancer survivors. Women with triple negative disease (HER2 -) should also be encouraged by this finding. The addition of higher fruit/vegetable intake, reduced overall calorie intake, weight loss toward ideal body weight and exercise also make a significant impact on prevention of recurrance.

[sdstarfish]

One important point to remember - not all fats are bad for you. In fact, some plant-derived fats are extremely helpful, such as the oils in avocado, nuts, and coconut.

[TanyaRD]

You are correct Lisa. The recommendations post-WINS was to obtain fat from some of the sources you listed, mainly monounsaturated fats-many nuts, olive, canola and peanut oil, avocado and of course omega-3 fats from fish.

[TanyaRD]

You are correct Lisa. The recommendations post-WINS was to obtain fat from some of the sources you listed, mainly monounsaturated fats-many nuts, olive, canola and peanut oil, avocado and of course omega-3 fats from fish.