High-Fat Diets Linked to Stage III Colon Cancer Recurrence
Aug-15-2007:07 57
 BOSTON, Aug. 14 -- After curative surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy for stage III colon cancer, patients who ate a high-fat diet were more likely to have a recurrence than those who ate a so-called prudent diet, found researchers here.
Those with a higher recurrence risk ate more meat, fat, French fries, refined grains, and desserts. Jeffrey A. Meyerhardt, M.D., M.P.H., of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and colleagues, reported in the Aug. 15 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Action Points
- Explain to interested patients that for colon cancer patients treated by curative surgery and chemotherapy, a Western dietary pattern (high in meat, fat, French fries, refined grains, sweets, and desserts) was associated with a higher risk of a cancer recurrence and death.
- Point out that in contrast to the Western dietary pattern, the prudent dietary pattern (high in fruits, vegetables, chicken, and fish) was not significantly related to patient outcome.
- Note that because this was an observational study, causality cannot and should not be drawn from these data.
By contrast, a "prudent diet," high in fruits, vegetables, poultry, and fish, had no effect on cancer recurrence or death.
The findings came from a prospective observational study of 1,009 patients with stage III disease enrolled in a randomized adjuvant chemotherapy trial from April 1999 through May 2001. The NCI-sponsored Cancer and Leukemia Group B (CALGB) trial compared with weekly fluorouracil and leucovorin with weekly irinotecan, fluorouracil, and leucovorin.
Previous epidemiological studies have indicated that dietary factors are associated with the risk of developing colon cancer, the researchers wrote. "However, the influence of diet and other lifestyle factors on the outcome of patients with established colon cancer is largely unknown," they added.
Jeffrey A. Meyerhardt, M.D., M.P.H. |
